The Rundown
by jaggedjacket
Summary: Tenten's path crosses Shino's as she prepares to take another mission with him. Me no own. Last chapter is up! Complete!
1. Chapter 1

Tenten sighed and put her hands on her hips. She stared at her sensei's back with frustration, knowing she had to pull out all the stops until she got what she needed. It was a decidedly low blow, and Tenten had never used the line before, but it was certain to deliver the results she wanted.

"Fine. I'll go find Kakashi and have _him_ feel me up."

Gai turned swiftly to look at her with a furious look of indignation, "I will not have that _pervert_ touching my one and only female student!"

"Good, then you do it." She prompted quickly.

"I…" the man trailed off, taking in the revealing little getup she was supposed to wear for her mission and cringed. She just didn't look like Tenten should, the little girl he treated more like a daughter than a fellow shinobi. She looked elegant and sexy and part of his brain just couldn't wrap around the fact that she had become a woman at some point and was taking a higher ranked mission than he thought she was ready for and with someone apart from their team, no less. She wanted to earn his approval, coming to him for help to see about how many weapons he could spot off of just a simple pat down. She needed a jounin, someone with incredibly high sensory skills to be able to detect what she had hidden away on her person. But something about putting his hands on her while she was wearing that dress unnerved him.

"It will take ten seconds, _please_, I have to know if you can find them all." Her big brown eyes weren't helping him to say no, as she used them to plead silently on her behalf.

Gai simply closed his eyes; he _really_ didn't want to do this.

"Don't make me ask one of those two." She nodded in the direction of the rest of the team that decided to show up and didn't bother turning towards them as she continued to stare at her sensei.

"Don't ask one of us to do what?" Inquired Lee tilting his head with curiosity, not at the question, but at the person who posed the question. Lee exchanged the questioning look with Neji, who shrugged his shoulders. After the two blinked at each other, they promptly continued to stare at the two with fascination.

"I understand that you need to be pat down for weapons, but I'd rather not, perhaps Kurenai would be a better alternative." Gai suggested, staring up at the sky as if asking Kami himself why he would subject himself to this kind of torture.

As soon as the sentence left his mouth, the two young adult males stepped forward, both speaking over one another as they kindly offered their services to the kunoichi, stating how it would be no trouble at all for them to lend a helping hand. Gai quickly frowned at the more than eager teenage boys while Tenten firmly stood her ground over the matter, not bothering to look anywhere else but at Gai until he caved.

"She is out of town, and you know I don't have time to find anyone else. They called me in last minute. Now, are you going to do it, or am I going to have to ask these morons who haven't figured out it's me yet?" Hand on her hip, she wasn't honestly going for sassy, just making her case as to what needed to be done, verses keeping Gai safely in his comfort zone where little Tenten still had her hair in twin buns and remained twelve for all eternity.

The boys who were overhearing the conversation blinked dumbly at one another.

"That's not Tenten," Neji stated as fact. Then with a tiny squint of his eyes he changed his tone, "is it?"

Tenten let her eyelids drop half way, the boys continued to blink with wide eyes and look her up and down. Hair down, cleavage, make-up, high-cut slit up the side. She was incredibly sexy.

"I thought for a second it was," Lee started smartly, "but no, Tenten has different _features_," Lee intoned with a large hand gesture. Neji nodded with a sudden low "ah" at his statement, as if it had registered exactly why this person standing in front of them could not possibly be their teammate.

Tenten baulked wordlessly at the two boys engaged in whispering and pointing at her various body parts, still hashing it out as to why this particularly good looking female differed greatly from their teammate. She distinctly heard the terms "flat as a board," and "taller," when they referenced their teammate. She became slightly annoyed. She wasn't allowed to wear her regular bindings on this mission. Not that she thought her teammate had ever noticed her chest size, teenage boys or no. Apparently, she was sorely mistaken.

She turned to Gai for an explanation. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

Gai covered his face with a hand then rubbed at his eyebrows with his fingers, a pained expression on his face, "Guy code for something even more embarrassing and painfully uncomfortable that I would really wish to not discuss with you."

With a huff, she all but yelled with frustration over the boys' discussion at Gai, "Are you going to feel me up or not?"

There was a momentary gap of reverent silence over those simple words. Some where overhead, a bird left its perch from a high treetop, making the only sound for miles in the clearing of the forest during that short pause.

Neji and Lee rushed forward after their real brains kicked in, nearly pushing each other over at the opportunity to "help," spurting out how very _supportive_ they could both be with their hands.

This earned death glares from both Gai and Tenten with a quick snap of both of their heads in that direction. At the sharp daggers that threatened to kill them with their eyes, each boy took a hasty step backwards from the sudden anger directed at them, and their words suddenly were full of apologies as they back-peddled.

Tenten held her hand out like a showcase model to her teammates, as if to demonstrate how "useful" they really were on such occasions. The gesture spoke the words of, "do you really want one of those hormone driven idiots to touch me? Or are you going to be a man and do it yourself?"

Gai considered all the information, still scowling at Neji and Lee who were now hypothesizing just exactly who Tenten really was. Tenten distinctly overheard the sentence, "never mentioned a kunoichi girlfriend before," and "no, definitely _not_ Tenten," with a shake of each of their heads as if that confirmed the matter entirely.

With a defeated look, Gai asked that she raise her arms so that he could begin the procedure. He knelt on the ground and stared somewhere behind her the hole time he thoroughly patted her down.

She was glad he didn't take her request lightly; she had hoped she wouldn't have to tell him he did a half-assed job and would have to repeat the whole awkward process over. He probably already realized this, which was why he was leaving no stone unturned.

"Seven," Gai announced as he got up, "though two of those were pretty tricky, only a jounin would be able to know about those senbon."

He crossed his arms across his chest as Neji and Lee openly gawked at how _anyone_ could possibly hide _anything_ under such a tightly fit dress.

Tenten smiled at her sensei, almost preening, "Great, the others you weren't able to find."

Gai raised a massive black eyebrow, "What?" Her last statement wasn't a question.

"I'm actually hiding twelve."


	2. Chapter 2

Tenten didn't know if she could handle dressing like a tramp for another week. In all honesty, getting nearly manhandled and groped every night by sleazy, lecherous thugs was completely overrated. Her cover story was solid, so air tight that _she_ even believed her alibi. Now it was just up to her partner to follow through with his end of the deal. She slunk around the table, careful to swish her hips as she took the empty drink tray away from the thirsty men, leaning over all the way so they could get a full view down her front.

Free to ogle, not to touch. That was their agreement. Anyone that needed a reminder promptly lost a finger, or three, depending on her mood.

So far her cover, which she had to hand it to Tsunade, was completely brilliant:

Leaf kunoichi in town doing a random guard job with her team during the daytime, moonlights as a weapon's specialist kunoichi/server to a group of thugs to make more money during her off hours. Everyone knew times were tough, so taking extra jobs in town was nothing out of the ordinary, even if it was working with less than reputable men.

The drug ring that they didn't think she knew about however, now _that_ was the sting operation that she was really there for, not the petty transport of illegal piss-ant weapons.

She reasoned most of the men she served didn't actually know the details about the more inside job, so there was no way she would be able to penetrate that particular group of higher ups. But that wasn't exactly why she held her position; she wasn't there to reconnoiter those particular criminals.

She was informed in the conscripts of her mission, that one of the Aburames had started to infiltrate the system already, working with the bigwigs and earning their trust before making the big bust. But even in the lowest ranks, rumor had it someone had suspected that it _was_ indeed an Aburame, something the syndicate officials would not allow. And if they _could_ prove that the man was an Aburame, retribution for past crimes would be carried out in the form of merciless torment for ruining past shipments of the drugs. It was the kind of remuneration one could only pay off with endless hours of torture and blood. From the sounds of it, they wanted Shibi's head on a pike more than they wanted the moneys from this next delivery. The man had seriously pissed these guys off.

And this shipment was rumored to be the biggest one yet.

It was a peculiar nature, that of her situation. She had to somehow prove to all of the men, with out a shadow of a doubt, that whatever Aburame walked through the door wasn't actually an Aburame. Tenten heard night after night about how notorious and hated Aburame Shibi was around the circled tables with a rancor and ire she had only seen on people who were in the bingo book. Shibi had become a living terror to every part of their operations, from the higher ups to the toady grunts that she serviced drinks to for "extra cash."

She prayed to Kami that the man didn't just waltz through the door; his picture was engrained on every lowlife thug's memory that lined the joint, not to mention one guy's right shoulder so he wouldn't forget the face that had cost them a large illegal shipment of chakra eating knives.

It was a pitty that the Aburame's destruction bugs were the only ones that were able to detect and locate the drugs. She would have bet money that an Inuzuka would not have any problem locating or sniffing them out, but that was simply not the case.

As Tenten made her way back up to the bar to collect another round of pale ale for the local henchmen, she prayed that if Shibi was stupid enough to show his face here, that he would have it well disguised.

They had the Aburame's clan traits down to a tee: goggles or sunglasses, stoic, quiet, antisocial, smart, mysterious, not prone to touching others, bugs crawling over them constantly, high collars, odd, laconic, ect.

In all her meetings with Shibi's son, she knew about the high collars and shielding of his eyes. Waiting outside the Hyuga complex for years on end for their chronically late teammates, she had actually seen the boy smile, make jokes, hold amazing conversations, and recently, flirt. _With her_. All that aside, she knew they would be able to spot Shino a mile away if he were on the mission with her now. Perhaps they had sent a cousin of his, or an uncle for this particular mission. She prayed to Kami again about whomever it was having enough commons sense not to hold true to the stereotypical Aburame mold.

The men around her may not be top pick for anyone's dodge ball game, but they were mean, vindictive and stupid, which made them dangerous.

Part of her secretly wanted Shino there, if only for the slight chance of getting to see him in something that wouldn't be his normal attire. Then she looked down and cringed at her own clothes, and prayed fervently to whatever deity would listen that he not be assigned on this mission. If she was lucky, he may not recognize her like her supposed ever-alert and observant teammates if he did happen to be on this case. She could only hope.

She smiled shyly at the bartender, one of the few people in the joint smart enough to keep her at arm's length, and ordered another round for her goons.

Every once in a while, they would have one of higher up lackeys come down and order some hard liquor on the rocks in a single glass, or take up a bottle with a bucket of ice and a few glasses. She never did get close to talk to one of them, and was almost grateful as she realized that even from a distance that this place was crawling with unattractive and not too bright shinobi wannabes. What little formal training they received from whatever bottom of the barrel they scraped them from, was far inferior to her own. They all knew that she was a Leaf kunoichi, completely capable, as some found out after a quick feel, of defending herself and fending her own. They just didn't realize how good of an actress she was, and her display of how much she hated bugs the other night would have made Gai sensei stream tears of joy it was so convincing.

Her performance contained the right amount of fear, shock, screaming, projectile weapons and embarrassment in the whole ordeal that almost made herself believe she was actually acting that way on instinct instead of forcing an elaborate ruse to let everyone know just exactly how much she could not stand being anywhere near a six legged creature. The whole scenario played out like an embarrassing secret come to light on accident, and she gave anyone the evil eye if she thought they were discussing her little meltdown over a simple insect.

The results couldn't have been more pleasing.

Now they were beginning to understand why she was short on funds, as one would not want to take many missions if the phobia was as bad as she made it out to be, so extended jobs would be avoided, especially if outdoor camping was all that was offered by way of shelter.

The word finally hit the right people, and she knew it was a matter of time before her talents were put to good use.

She turned to see two men, the lower lackeys she saw take drinks upstairs for the last week, slow upon descending the stairs to the edge of the bar. The tall one brazenly walked up to her in her personal space and eyed her over salaciously.

"What do we have here?" he asked in a low voice. It would have been sexy, no, no. On no planet could this guy or anything he said ever be considered sexy. She forced the bile down her throat and plastered on a half smile she hoped looked more flirtatious than disgusted, distracted by the hideous gaudy chain around his neck.

She took her tray of drinks from the bar and slowly made her way over to the table of felons and served them out one by one, winking at each drooling man in turn. Then she turned back to the man she knew still had his eyes on her at the bar and winked at him before moving over to the next table with more elaborate hip action than normal and dished out their drinks. She headed back to the bar, the tall man with the hideous bling still staring at her lecherously in a mixture of awe.

"I could use that drink tray of yours," he stated as he thumbed a long tendril of her hair.

She batted his hand away, and the man looked insulted at her gesture, and went to lurch again in a more menacing way before the bartender stopped his wiping of the bar counter to grab his shoulder.

"Look, don't touch," he warned then jerked his head over to one of the guys who had made the mistake first, who was conspicuously missing most of his fingers. The tall man nodded to the bartender with a resigned composure.

"Feisty, I like that." He shifted from one foot to another, "I could use your drink tray upstairs, the boss asked for a little entertainment tonight, what do you say, tuts?"

She smiled, keeping her focus on the prize, "That all depends on how much you are going to compensate my drink tray. It don't work for free."

He laughed, "Feisty and smart. Don't worry, if the boss is impressed, he will make it worth your while."

And just like that, her tray was full of glasses and the two men that had come down had bottles of liquor and a bucket of ice in their arms to carry upstairs.

She followed them in, the upper floor more luxurious than the seedy, smelly bar below. Low lights and beautiful wooden floors covered with exotic animal skin rugs were the first thing she noticed as she entered the large room. On the other side was a large poker table surrounded by denizens playing quietly in the low lighting. The room hushed and stilled as she followed them inside further.

She'd be damned that she had to be the only female in the room.

And scantily clad nonetheless.

It was going to be a long week.

She glanced at the men, who looked all but dumbfounded at the turn-up of a girl in their inner sanctum.

The tall man gangster wannabe who suggested she come up, walked over to what she could only assume was the Boss. He leaned down in his ear and whispered lowly. The boss nodded with approval. She couldn't see anyone very clearly at the far end of the poker table, or the face of the Boss for that matter. She promptly started taking orders, handing out glasses of booze with feminine charm, all the while hoping to getter a better view of the men she couldn't see.

One meaty hand reached up under her skirt, and in a puissant move, she had his head slammed against the green felt, eating poker chips while she twisted his arm behind his back painfully.

"I'm glad that everyone is here so that I can make an example of you. I'm a Leaf kunoichi first, your drink wench second. The next person to cop a feel will pull back a bloody stump. Have I made myself clear?" She smiled and batted her long eyelashes at the men who all but gaped at her bravado. "I'll take the silence as a yes."

Once they had stopped staring, and had gone back to their game of cards, she continued to hand out drinks, slowly working her way to the unlit portion of the table.

"What can I get for you?" she asked a man with a shaved head, who grinned with missing teeth at her.

"If you're looking for money, I got a job for ya," he leaned back then referenced with his hands the place between his thighs.

"Shot of cyanide it is," she moved on, over the noisy jests of the other men who mercilessly teased him about how she shot him down.

"What about you, buddy?" She asked to the man still ensconced in the shadows.

He leaned forward, if only a little, letting enough of the light fall across his neck.

A tan, masculine throat glowed in the dim lights, and she watched the Adam's apple bob fluidly as he asked for a whiskey sour.

She knew that voice.

She followed the sexy throat down to a partially exposed chest, the buttoned down white collar looking especially delicious against the dark color of his skin. She had a feeling under all those coats he would look that tempting.

When she returned with his drink he oh-so-casually brushed a finger deliberately across hers as he took it. The sensation caused an almost panicky tingle to run through her body, and she had a hard time keeping passive about the small encounter.

The tall man who should be strangled by his necklace it was so obnoxious, had been talking to the Boss the whole time, and came up behind her after pouring a second round for the men.

He explained there would be extra moneys in it for her if she were a bit more open to harmless flirting with the men. He went on to explain they needed a distraction, a morale boost, and she, as he pulled another lock of her hair, would serve to be the best diversion.

Instead of jamming a kunai through his eye cavity like she wanted to do, she simply smiled and walked over to the poker table, stating that whoever won the next set, she would sit in their lap for the next few rounds.

Cheers and shouts all around as the men antied up and the dealer passed out cards.

She ran fingers through their hair and squeezed shoulders as she walked around the table, sometimes letting a finger drag down a forearm as she strolled on to the next male. She knew she was teasing them, all eyes were on her and the only sound beside low grunts from her touch was the clacking of her heels on the floor.

Her only comforting thought from coming in contact from the wretched brutes, was that she could boil herself in bleach tonight in her hotel when it was all done.

Thank Kami for being the only female on the team and having her own private room. Amen.

Before she had come to the darkened side of the poker table, cards had been flipped over and moans of defeat could be heard all around. She looked to see whose lap she would be situated in for the next long while, a full house sitting neatly in front of him. Aces and eights.

The man leaned forward out of the shadows, the light revealing the cocky smirk on his face.

Shino looked all too pleased as he leaned back so she could sit in his lap.


	3. Chapter 3

As she approached closer, Tenten realized that he had a katana sheathed and was twirling it vertically by the hilt with one hand. The tip of the sheath on the floor, the other being fingered nonchalantly by the Aburame hier. The action set his sinewy arm muscles to ripple just so in the light, and cause the small chain on the end to wrap around the hilt, then unwrap as he rolled it back and forth in his thumb and fingers. It was both a cocky and disturbingly erotic action, and Tenten chalked it up to her love of weapons as well as how good he looked with half his chest exposed by the unbuttoned shirt. That damned smirk of his was also equally alluring, framed on his angular jaw and highlighted by a mischievous glint of his nearly black colored eyes. He patted his hand palm down on his thigh with a quick slap, and her eyes were drawn to how nicely the rolled up sleeves hugged the thick part of his forearms.

But she had to admit it wasn't just his physical appearance that she was attracted to as she stepped slowly over to Shino's side.

She slipped in between his legs and slowly began to lower her body into a sitting position. Someone broke the moment by slapping a large sum of money on the table before her butt touched his thigh, offering it up to the kunoichi if she might consider sitting in his lap instead.

"Sorry handsome," she spoke loud enough for most of them to hear, "Gotta go where the money's at." And she very sensually curved her body away from his, teasing him so much it earned her an almost inaudible grunt from the back of his throat from the loss of such a view.

The simple utterance gave her quite a bit of satisfaction, even if it might have been something he did for show.

She situated herself unhappily on the man's lap who handed the money over, though she looked pleased to do so as she wrapped an arm around the back of her chair to hold her position in his lap as he played the next round of cards.

Men were irritatingly smelly animals. Most of them, anyways. The little she could smell of Shino was actually quite pleasant in contrast. These goons that she was situated around were at least a little easier on the eyes, and had better hygiene, minus the troll whose lap she occupied that at the moment.

After three rounds, she announced again that the winner of the next hand would be her next chair, and she wouldn't take any bribes this time.

Because if she had to sit another round on Tweedle Scums lap, she just might loose her dinner.

Another round of males elbowing each other and cheering at the thought of the little minx sitting in their lap and the dealer shuffled and passed out the cards.

She nervously thought that if Shino won this hand too, someone might accuse him of cheating. She hoped he was smart enough to realize this as well. He did end up having a damn good hand, but the man sitting directly to his right beat him, just barely.

She leaned over to flatten her skirt out, making sure to do so in Shino's direction. She could hear the methodical clinking from the twirling katana falter ever so slightly.

Ah, so she did have an effect on him. Rolling it over in her mind, that probably just proved he wasn't gay. Still, the stoic Shino she knew suddenly wasn't so stoic. Her attention quickly diverted as she realized the man whose lap she was resting on was purposely letting his hands roam a little too far.

In truth, he wasn't all that bad looking, but she got the distinct feeling of her skin crawling just from his proximity and the sleazy vibe rolling off of him in waves. With each brazen move the man plied further to seeking more inappropriate territory with his hands. The action, she noticed from the corner of her eye, made the Aburame's jaw clench every time he did it. She might have heard the distinct sound of his teeth grinding, but she couldn't be sure.

She leaned over and whispered into Mr. Handsy's ear, him smiling full out like he was going to get asked to go some where quieter, then sobering up as he realized that she would make good on her threat if he didn't stop. "If your hands slips again, so will my tanto."

Said tanto was held firmly to his manhood as she spoke, no one but Shino she supposed, had even seen her take it out, it was unholstered so fast. The man quickly became focused on his cards for the remainder of the time she reclined in his lap.

She thanked her lucky stars he didn't view the threat as a turn on; Kami only knew the disaster that could have been.

Shino seemed pleased with the results of her little "talk" with Mr. Now Suddenly Very Focused On The Game. The clacking of the katana tassel rhythmically chimed as he relaxed.

Tenten made it very clear that to the others how very interested in Shino she was through out the night. He never won another match to earn a visit from her, but that didn't stop her from shamelessly flirting with him.

She needed to let everyone in the room know just how very interested in him she was.

His life depended on it.

Finally, she announced it was time to leave, and she very obviously left a key for Shino, if he so desired to give her a late night call that evening. Wink, wink.

When she got to her hotel, she remembered all the scum she had come in contact with, and thought about that excoriating her skin with a strigil until her skin nearly bled. She dreaded to think of all the STDs she got just from breathing the same air as they did.

Bleh.

Just as she slipped out of the tub, she had an alarming knock on her door.

She had enough time to throw on a clean dress, as her normal clothes weren't in reach or very clean for that matter.

Shino all but barged through the door, nearly baulking at her attire.

He rushed in, and closed the door behind him, stiffening from just looking at her it seemed.

"What's wrong?" she asked folding her arms in front of her with worry.

He seemed to look down at her chest and stare for only a second before remembering himself.

"They are following me." He spoke, looking suddenly interested in the wall. He had his glasses back on, and no katana.

"Did they find out?" she asked going into his line of vision. He shut his eyes, almost unwilling to speak or look at her. Like the inevitable had just happened despite their best efforts.

Damn it all if they did. Or maybe they thought they did.

"Do they _know_, Shino?" she demanded.

"They will shortly, they think I am here to…" he seemed to have lost his breath to continue with the rest of his sentence.

Her eyes bulged. Ohhhh, right.

Shit.

"How far are they away?" she asked, peering out the blinds as casually as possible.

"They will be here in a few minutes," he offered. "My father shouldn't have put you up to this."

"Your father was the one who asked for me by name?" She reeled. But why?

"He was under the impression that you wouldn't mind my bugs…" another sentence trailing off and not looking her in the eyes.

"What about your bugs? Shino, you do realize they think I have a bug phobia, right? So any kind of contact with you would mean I would freak out if one of your bugs touched me. That is what they think. Do you understand what I am saying? Why I gave you the key." He let out a breath of air neither of them realized he was holding.

"These men know a lot about my clan, not just their abilities." He swallowed after a short pause, as if what he was about to say was either incredibly important or excruciatingly embarrassing. "When an Aburame get…_excited_…they loose some control of their kakkai."

Tenten stood perfectly still. Ok, so it was the painfully embarrassing thing. She could work with that.

She rushed up to Shino and began to unbutton his already half-buttoned shirt.

He took a step back as if burned by her touch.

"What are you doing?"

"Saving your life," she said as she tried to touch him again. He backed up onto the edge of the bed and fell into a sitting position away from her, looking her over as if simple contact with her would result in something catastrophic.

"You'd rather die than make out with me. I'd say that I was insulted, but that would be an overwhelming understatement. Not to mention completely embarrassing on my part. Damn, Shino, I thought we had a connection." She fell defeatedly on the edge of the bed next to him. It wasn't the kind of confession she would ever make to a boy, but seen as how he was about to die at the hands of a mob because he had found her so detestable, she had a hard time caring about what she looked like right now in his eyes. She really thought he liked her. Wow, had _she_ been wrong.

She was busy thinking about weather or not those idiots making a ruckus in the lobby were going to gut him here, or back at their hideout when he interrupted her thoughts on getting blood out of the carpet with a sober: "That would be the problem. I don't want you to be kissing me just to save my life."

(o)

When the men barged through the door, Shino and Tenten didn't have to pretend to be upset that they were so rudely interrupted, though it took a while to notice that someone else was in the room with them. With the lights down low, they couldn't see his destruction bugs roam as freely over her body as much as his hands. One of the men cleared his throat, and they still ignored them.

"Boss needs to see you," he stated as Shino dived in for another drudging kiss. He was hovering above her on the bed, straddling her as he nipped at her bottom lip hungrily. She let out a soft moan as he made his way towards her neck, teeth teasing her tender flesh so much she arched underneath him.

The man in the door way cleared his throat louder, and took a step forward with his arms superimposed over his chest.

Shino snapped angrily at the man, only raising his head from his task as to not shout loudly in her ear. She busied herself with attacking his neck in return, watching his eyes roll to the back of his head before he closed his eyes and growled at him, "Can't you see that I am busy? Leave."

Undeterred, the man took another step inside, "Boss says the shipment needs to be sent tonight. We will give you a minute to compose yourself. We will be outside. Don't keep us waiting." The door clicked behind him, leaving the couple alone once more.

He reluctantly got off of her, after helping himself to another fistful of hair and a brush of her lips against his.

"Do you think they bought it?" she whispered to him letting her hands run over the contours of his back.

He shrugged and smiled, "If they didn't, at least I will die a happy man."


	4. Chapter 4

Tenten was a bit concerned when she didn't hear any word from her supposed partner for the next week. Her long nights at the bar dragged on forever, and eventually she was sent with her team to go home, not knowing at all what had happened to Shino.

Safely back in Konoha, she waited for him to return, but now her team was being sent out again, another two week mission, and she wasn't sure at all what to do about what happened that night.

Too much time had passed, and perhaps she had too much time to analyze and think about what had really happened.

She decided before she left, she would leave a note for the Aburame heir, just so he didn't think that she hadn't forgotten their little encounter.

It simply read:

_Dear Shino,_

_My team is being deployed on another mission lasting the duration of the next fortnight. As you have yet to return, I would greatly appreciate going over the details regarding our previous mission together at your earliest convenience. I believe that meeting in person would be most beneficial for exchanging our information. Feel free to contact me when I am in town upon your arrival so that we can agree on a time and place._

_Please send my deepest and warmest regards to your father for selecting me for this particular mission. I am most appreciative for the opportunity to work with you._

_Tenten_

Perhaps it might have been a little to formal, but she was certain that her point was made all too clear. She wanted to meet him, and if he wasn't so interested in her then she could pull it off on just being curious if her role was beneficial to his wellbeing and the mission.

When she came back from her two week journey, tired and covered in mud from being in Rain country, she nearly stomped on the letter waiting for her that was slipped through the mail slot. She wiped the edge of the letter of the mud she had accidently smudged on the corner and with an eagerness she had never anticipated before, she unfolded the thick paper and read the following:

_Dear Tenten,_

_It seems that our missions are being staggered which prevents us from being in town at the same time. As inconvenient as this remains, my teammates and I will be out in Grass country until the end of the month. It is my hope that we might meet as soon as possible upon my return, if you are not deployed out on another mission, to go over some of the finer details of our last mission together. It is with much impatience on my part to remove the ambiguity revolving around my departure and I intend to resolve the matter firmly upon my arrival to town. It would be of utmost importance to schedule a large block of time to re-familiarize ourselves with the nature of the mission and the specific roles we were each assigned so that any obnubilation on our parts might be clarified. As such, bringing along any and all paraphernalia in reference to the mission might be of great benefit, so please do not hesitate to come overly prepared with all of the resources you were assigned._

_Shino_

She thumbed it over in her hands, taking note of his small, but neat handwriting and how he used an official seal to stamp the outside of the parchment.

She couldn't help the smile that formed on her face. Did he want her to wear that dress? Is that what Mr. Stoic Aburame was hinting at?

She threw her backpack on the ground and hurried over to her calendar. According to his letter, he would be out for another week. If she was very lucky, she might be able to see him before another mission stole away more time between them. She unpacked her things and took a long shower and thought about her next encounter with a half-naked Shino.

As luck would have it, she was forced to take a mission solo out in Snow, and she had to leave the day before he was to return.

Defeated, she penned another letter.

_Dear Shino,_

_The delay upon our aforementioned meeting has me despondent as to if such meeting will ever get to take place. My wish is that it our overlapping schedules would finally coincide and provide a period of time for us to catch up from our long absence away from each other. I am being deployed again in the northern province of Snow currently. My return date is scheduled for ten days following the correspondence of this letter._

_PS_

_Don't forget the katana._

_Tenten_

Satisfied with the brevity of the note, she was surprised when she was invited in by Shikuro instead of just dropping off the letter.

The elder man smiled at her, and what should have been an awkward encounter turned into an informal and comfortable tea on the barstools in the main kitchen as they conversed politely. She let Shikuro reminisce about Torune and engaged him affably about his current work and favorite pastimes. At some point he brought up how Shibi consulted him about the decision to employ her for her last mission with the Aburame heir. It shouldn't have been as alarming as it was, but somehow a bunch of older gentlemen conspiring as to whom would be a better person suited to fill that kind of role unnerved her. She thanked him warmly for the recommendation and asked him before leaving if he wouldn't mind giving the small letter for Shino.

He pointed with a smile, stating that his room was the third door down the hall to her left if she would like to leave it herself.

With a small bow of gratitude, she headed off to find his room, curiosity and apprehension brewing inside of her.

She pushed the door open without so much as a creak and peered inside. The hallway light offered nothing so far as the contents of the room, other than there was a neatly made bed and the edge of a desk. Finding the light switch, she flipped it on and soft orange light glowed about the room. She fingered a team photograph on his bookshelf and noted his bedroom was probably just as clean as she kept her apartment. Thick curtains obscured a full view of the inner garden and courtyard, and she noted the large ledge on the windowsill. Upon further investigation, she realized that the ledge was a favorite place of his to reside. A small table lay within reach of the ledge, perfect to set a book or drink upon. There was a faded worn pattern on the wood, and she let a finger brush against its softened areas, confirming her theory about the Aburame's pastime.

She left the note on his pillow, certain that anyone else would leave the note on his desk. She wanted to leave the message that she had been in his room, and left quickly before Shikuro thought her lingering suspicious.

She returned home from Snow, sopping wet with melted snowflakes from head to toe.

Her heart nearly plummeted upon the absence of a note on her welcome mat, and she shrugged off her heavy coat with a disappointed sigh.

Then the glint of a chain from a katana caught her eye, and she nearly tore her shirt trying to get the wet contraption off of her arm. She rushed over to the ferrite blade, sitting innocuously in its sheath on her kitchen table.

It was the same katana that Shino had the night of their mission together.

The letter underneath the katana read:

_Dear Tenten,_

_I was particularly pleased that you would personally see to delivering your last note. I thought I would return the favor and drop this letter off inside your apartment with a little souvenir from the last time we had the pleasure of each others company. I must confess curiosity overtook me, and I could not prevent myself from touring your lovely home. To ensure in good faith that you are looking forward to our encounter, I have taken the liberty of taking a souvenir of my own. I hope that you do not mind. I doubt the item will be missed and it gives me great comfort to hold a small token around with me to reminisce over. _

_PS_

_I look forward to seeing them on you in person._

_Shino_

Whoa, wait a second. What exactly did that man take? Did he just take a pair of her panties? On a mission?

Hot damn.

She quickly entered her bedroom and dumped the contents of her underwear drawer on her bed.

All of her panties and bras matched, so it was simply finding the missing pair and as the realization hit her as to which panties he purloined, she had to admit he had decent taste.

It was her black lacey panties that had little ties on the hips. She always thought the little tied bows were particularly adorable whenever she put them on.

And now they were with Shino on a mission. How bizarre was that? Or perhaps she had lost that pair and he took something else. The possibility of that seemed slim, but something told her to keep her next note to him clean as she wasn't completely certain that no one else was reading them. He could have just as easily taken a pair of hair ribbons, and the note would read something way more innocent than what her gutter brain was telling her.

The next week she had missed him by quite literally, she found out later, a few hours. The whole scenario was completely frustrating, but her letter in response read:

_Dear Shino,_

_I must first state how very pleased I was that you would let me borrow such a well-crafted weapon. As delightful as your correspondence has been these past few months, I am still rather looking forward to seeing you face to face. The finer aspects of our last encounter are becoming slightly harder to recall, and I am confident that you can refresh my memory as to nature of it in its entirety. I am leaving with my team for a three day mission on escort duty. I hope to visit you upon my return, as you are scheduled to be in town that day. _

_I sincerely hope that your token has kept you great company these last few weeks and will be displayed well upon its intended as soon as it is possible. _

_PS_

_I hope you don't mind if I take one of my own._

_Tenten_

She was allowed to leave it in his room again, and she fought the urge to loudly ransack his drawers looking for his underwear. She finally settled for taking one of his undershirts after fingering the soft material and smelling the fabric. It smelled exactly like him, a heady masculine scent that nearly overloaded her senses with euphoria. She fought the urge to bury her face in it as soon as she left the complex, and left it tucked away until she got to her apartment before indulging herself again.

It was going to be a long three days.


	5. Chapter 5

Uneasy with the restlessness that a three day waiting period viced on her, Tenten decided to put her talents to good use and funnel them into helping with the construction on the north end of town. Granted it was the closest site by the north gate, which happened to be right between said gate and the Aburame complex, but she tried not to focus on that. Instead she focused her flashlight on the electrical wires that had somehow fallen loose out of their place around the socket as she lay on the floor of the empty, hallow shell of a building.

She guessed that the sun was just about setting from the meager light filtering in from the skeletal structures of the half-built walls. She climbed the stairs to check the breakers once again, then climbed back up the stairs to check the wiring job once more. Her battery on her walkie-talkie was crapping out, so she quickly hailed the overseer to try the main power on the floor below to see if she could single out the problem. Giving up after no reply, she resigned to finish her task and pack in for the day.

She lay flat on her back and grabbed her Philips and disassembled the electrical box that was creating all of her problems. She inspected the wires carefully with the small flashlight in her mouth.

It looked like the wire had been cut.

Or eaten.

She found her wire cutters and stripped the portions until she could reasonable cut them down and hook them back up to their connections so they could work properly.

A needle pokes worth of pain on her arm had her believing that she may have just inadvertently electrocuted herself.

But there was no metallic taste in her mouth, only a spot by her elbow that felt like she had been poked lightly with a kunai.

Or bit by some thing.

She quickly checked the area over with her flashlight, noting that it had not marked her in any way. Curiously, her eyes narrowed to inspect where the pain occurred, but a small flit of a flying object redirected her attention. Moving her flashlight to zero in on the bug, she finally located it, crawling on her screwdriver and flitting its wings with fanfare. She offered her finger out to the little insect, and it happily crawled on her finger, stilled and then ate chakra off of her.

She imagined that he did this the first time as well, the difference being that this time it did not sting like she had gotten bit.

The satisfied bug rested a while as she inspected it. She only knew of destruction bugs to eat living chakra.

"Did you miss me?" Shino called from the doorway of the room. He leaned on the bare wooden frame with a casualness that Tenten had never seen before.

"There are better ways of getting my attention, you know," Tenten let the kakkai fly back to its owner, and Shino only kept his post in the frame instead of bothering to come in any further. She imagined that he was frowning from the remark. "And, yes, I did miss you." To this he almost straightened from his lean on the door frame, but really only bothered to turn towards her as she pressed up against him to deliver a sensual kiss across his lips. He shakily grabbed her with both hands, a hesitancy that censored a red flag in the back of her head. She could feel the kakkai swarm over her exposed skin, nipping at her flesh as she deepened the kiss. Then she realized at the same time she smelled a metallic scent in the air that the kakkai were all feeding off of her chakra.

Her hand instinctively delve inside his jacket, she felt the warm sticky liquid and quickly pulled away from Shino to view her hand. In the dim lighting it looked like her hand was covered in black tar.

Cursing, she saw Shino throw her a toothy grin, one born of delirium and loss of blood, no doubt.

His kakkai continued to draw off of her chakra, though not enough to completely deplete her of her life force or strength. She wrapped an arm around Shino to support him, all the while wondering where the hell the gate attendant got off letting an injured shinobi through without first seeking medical attention.

Then she figured that he would send for help if his kakkai had swarmed them and started to bite at them. She reasoned they just sent for back up, and then let him get a head start in order to avoid his destruction bugs.

Shinobi guards were a little twitchy like that. Even if the Aburame complex was so close, she grit her teeth as she helped haul him down the steps, noting his footstep of blood upon his accent, still, he should have been treated with more care.

Shino was pressing against her, all but dead weight at this point as they exited the building.

"You could have just told me right away that you were injured," she grunted as they limped their way to the compound.

"Would you have kissed me if I did?"

The destruction bugs had drained so much of her chakra right away she couldn't even reasonably heal him enough for a shotty patch job, or even flash step them quickly out of there. She was stuck with only her normal strength to get the Aburame heir to safety. She made a mental note to make it a point not to roll her eyes when Gai suggested she train without the use of her chakra and rely on her natural power to endure training.

The best thing she could think to do while she dragged him along was to keep him talking.

"How did Mr. Tough Guy get that nice hole in his chest?" Tenten readjusted his arm over her shoulder for better purchase. She could feel the vibrations of alarmed kakkai reverberate in his chest as she spoke. She pushed past her worry and as they foraged on, one small step at a time.

"Katana," he rasped against her neck. His head was still bobbing up and down as they lurched on, and she was grateful she still had him awake. If he lost consciousness it might all be over.

"Well, at least the enemy had good taste."

Just when she questioned whether she would be able to continue her journey, two grey clad shinobi flanked her side, peeling Shino off of her carefully, spouting off medical jargon and taking him away so fast, it left Tenten literally on her ass, trying to not to pass out from lack of chakra.

That had been a close one.

She gave into her exhaustion and lay flat on the earth until it stopped spinning enough for her to sit up.

She was vaguely aware of someone standing over her. If it were an enemy nin, she would have been done for, her chakra had almost been sucked dry and she had dragged Shino for a good long while before help had arrived.

The person hovering over her watched her catch her breath and offered her a hand up as soon as she was able to sit up with out passing out.

"You are quite in the habit of saving my son." Shibi announced, "For that I am quite grateful."

Some how telling him "your welcome," seemed more than awkward, so she smile up at Shino's father instead.

He pulled out a small pill from inside his front breast pocket and held it out with two fingers to the kunoichi.

She recognized it as a chakra pill, and as she was sporting only a civilian construction jumpsuit, she took the proffered pill eagerly.

"Thank you," Tenten smiled again, Shibi looked mildly amused as he pulled her up to standing position.

Yeah, this wasn't awkward AT ALL.

"Most people would be afraid that the kakkai would drain them of their chakra," he began.

"Like the guard at the north gate?" Tenten tried not to let the anger she felt reach her voice.

Shibi only smiled, "Yes, like the guard at the front gate." He paused, "Most people don't like bugs."

"So what you are saying is that you are going to help me beat him up?" she added playfully, batting her lashes with a forced smile. Shibi only chuckled and shook his head.

"As appealing as that sounds, I have another proposition for you. Walk with me." Shibi directed her towards the compound. Tenten followed, if not for a chance to get to visit Shino as he recovered.

"I need you for another mission."

A/N:

Sorry this was so short, but I really liked the idea of them kissing in a half-constructed building for some reason. Not very romantic, but, meh, it seemed fitting.


	6. Chapter 6

Distracted by the amount of Shino's blood she was covered in, it took Tenten a while to notice that Shibi's kakkai were thrumming loudly beside her. Now that the sun had set, it was easier to ignore the small spots of the blood trail they were following on their way to the complex. The whole of the situation was eerie, and the logical part of Tenten's brain began to kick in again while they walked in silence.

This was not going to work.

She would politely decline the mission, pay her respects to the man that let her kiss him while he was dying, then get the hell out as fast as humanly possible.

A relationship with the Aburame was proving to be too dangerous, not to mention the fact that she really didn't have any way of telling weather or not he really wanted her or if kissing him was a product of whimsy brought on by blood loss and the possibility of death.

It was a gamble she wasn't willing to take. She had put herself on the line, pushed her limits and knew that enough was enough. Shino nearly killed her with his destruction bugs, and the prudent thing to do would be to keep her distance.

Not to mention that dating an heir to a clan, without express permission, could get her into some serious trouble. Shibi would certainly not approve of some poor, no name kunoichi trying to pry her way into one of the most well-established, powerful and respected clans in the village. She was playing with fire, and if she wasn't careful, she would get Shino burned in her folly as well.

She couldn't have that. Shino needed to be with someone with prestige, someone who knew the ins and outs of politics, someone suited for a wealthy life under a microscope where their actions and motivations were constantly questioned.

Someone not her.

How selfish did she think she could be? This wasn't just some random shinobi, this was _the_ Aburame heir. She couldn't blindly lead him down a path that might jeopardize his status or defame the pristine Aburame name. Missions were one thing, but socializing with someone as low on the social ladder as her might be deleterious to his reputation.

She didn't want that for him. She wouldn't let him stumble because of her. Her little stunt of kissing him, even if no one had seen it, might be enough to get him in trouble with his council, even if it was induced by a trauma.

The only reason why she was allowed to set foot in such a home was because Shibi wanted her to take another mission, she figured with either him, Shino, or both.

Shibi nodded to several people as they entered the complex, mostly men, she was pretty sure, wearing the standard concealing overcoats and black goggles.

Following Shibi into a study, she watched him produce a bottle of sake and two glasses from inside a desk drawer. He poured the alcohol into each glass, a sense of urgency in his mannerisms that she had never before witnessed on the elder man. It was as if he had ignored her momentarily, then as an afterthought looked at her and finally offered her a cup.

"Drink?" he asked, taking up his own filled glass. Tenten just shook her head no and watched the man down his quickly, then chase it with the one he poured for her.

With a resigned sigh, he unceremoniously plopped down in the chair across from her and inspected the cup in his hand momentarily before setting it with a clank on the desk in front of him.

Tenten raised an eyebrow at the man's suddenly strange behavior. Surely this was not the actions of the Aburame clan leader? His kakkai slowly began to hum lower, until the raucous diminished into a regulated vibration she was accustomed to as he leaned his head against the back of the chair.

He looked tired and worn, the lines around his mouth set yet shallow, and his face had started to regain a healthier tone due to the alcohol. She settled in the chair across from him, quite concerned about the man displaying characteristics of a man worse for wear. Deductive reasoning concluded that the man was overly worried about his son, a common quality they both shared at the moment.

She wondered briefly if he did this often.

She was beginning to realize that the kakkai's behavior was tied to their emotion resulting in less than pleasant results if the host could not remain calm. It was another tick mark on her warning list of reasons why she should detach herself as soon as possible.

"My apologies, Tenten," Shibi stated after a sudden breathy sigh, "the role you played tonight saved my son's life, with out you there, I am certain he would not have made it home alive."

Uncertain of what to say, she merely nodded, thinking there was no need to thank her again. Directing his attention to her once more, it was as if he was seeing her for the first time covered in his son's blood. He quickly paled as he looked her up and down spotting the dark stains against the color of the construction suit, poured another shot, and downed it immediately. As much as she was at a loss for words, she understood that Shibi might need some comforting that didn't come out of a bottle to ease his tension.

She placed a hand over his, after inspecting which one had the least amount of dried blood on it, and choosing that one, offered him a small smile.

"It is normal for parents to worry about their children. It shows how much you care."

She couldn't tell if it was her actions or her words that affected him, but he stared first at the hand that attempted to console him, then at her before answering.

"There have only been a handful of times I have ever drank from this bottle." He stated contemplatively picking up his glass again. "It's getting low."

Uncertain of his meaning, and not willing to push the man farther to elaborate, she studied the frown on his face, the defeated posture of his caved shoulders, and noted how similar his hands were to his son's.

"Each time," he finally continued, "I thought I'd loose him." The low voice registered at almost a whisper, the gravity in the room falling on her ears as she listened intently. As special as she felt that she was privy to this side of Shibi, she couldn't help but wonder why he was revealing such personal information so willingly to her. It was both disquieting and flattering, his voice edged with a desperation that unnerved her.

"The first time was after his kakkai infusion," he lamented after another shaky breath. "He was strong though, it was just so soon after his mother…" he trailed off, and Tenten was willing to bet that if she could see his eyes that they were either glassy with tears or close to it. After another still moment, he cleared his throat and changed the subject.

"Well," he stated much louder. "They should be done healing him by now. We can go see him."

As much as Tenten wanted to give her sympathies to the man, she couldn't help but think it was a damned low blow. How was she to say no to Shibi's mission after all that he had said to her? She rolled it all over in her mind as he led her to a sequestered area of the complex, no doubt their own personal hospital of sorts. Stale halls and dully lit hallways lined the catacombs as they snaked their way to Shino's room.

Shibi curtly turned to her, asking if he wouldn't mind a few minutes alone with his son before she visited.

"Of course," was really the only thing she could say as she waited patiently for the patriarch outside the door.

It was times like this she wished she had Kiba's sense of hearing, or that she could be a fly on the wall just to listen in on that conversation. She wondered if father and son were as stoic with each other as they tended to be with other shinobi, or if their little powwows involved the kind of depth she encountered in Shibi's study.

The door opened with as small click after Tenten had sufficiently counted all of the weapons that she owned one by one in her head and picked off an alarming amount of dried blood from her cuticles and nails. Shibi announced that he needed to talk with one of the doctors and would return shortly.

Tenten nodded again, then entered the room, unsure of what to expect.

It was that sound again, the intense vibration of kakkai twitching in chorus that she heard before she even saw him, a different frequency than his father's, obstreperously vocalizing their dissent. She could hear it, them, before she even saw Shino. It echoed against the pale white walls of the sterile hospital room all but deafening her. And yet when she saw him, they seemed to abate to a diminutive hush over the expanse of the room. Did she really have that kind of effect on him? Or was he doing that just to hide away from her? Was he silently telling his kakkai to keep it down on her account?

Well he certainly held quite a bit of power over her, she realized as she tried not to stare at his chest, so openly exposed except for the bandages swathing his middle and shoulder. She couldn't tell the lights were playing tricks on her or if the pale-grey colored skin belonged to him or not. Heaven knew she could relate, being a shade more red and yellow than some of the more fairer skinned denizens of Konoha. If he felt exposed with his shirt off, he certainly didn't show it. He looked right as rain, comfortable sitting up in his bed, IV attached to his left hand, and not a care in the world it seemed as his long torso graced the incline of the bed.

"Your father will be back shortly, he wanted to check in with the doctors," she announced awkwardly, absently reaching for her weapon's pouch, which wasn't on her person. Her hands slid down the sides of her hips, bereft that she didn't have a kunai to spin with her idle hands to pass the time. She frowned at him as her palms hit the half-dried liquid gluing her to parts of her standard issue uniform. "You also owe me a new outfit." She held out a palm tainted with Shino's blood to indicate the reason for her statement.

Shino only nodded and turned her attention to the sink so she could wash her hands. She couldn't help but feel like the Aburame was staring at her the entire time she scrubbed at her skin in an attempt to rid herself of the terrible stains.

"I am told you saved my life again," Shino's smooth voice called out low to her, making her freeze on the spot, "you have my gratitude."

Noticing that she had let the water run over her hands with out movement, she plastered on a fake smile and turned off the water.

She wasn't sure if his amnesia over the ordeal was good or bad. He wouldn't have said "I was told," if he had remembered, he would have just thanked her for saving his life. Clearly he had no memory of her kissing him.

"Couldn't let the heir of one of the most powerful clans in Konoha die just because of a little stab wound," came her reply. Then more quietly, "You don't remember coming to me at the construction site?"

Shino shook his head from side to side, "My chakra was too low to account for my actions," he admitted evenly without remorse or embarrassment, "the kakkai took over at that point." He spoke with a surprisingly broken tone of sincerity that caught Tenten's breath, "I apologize for putting you in jeopardy."

It was a shame that he still wore those damn goggles of his, and she could make out tiny splattered drops of no doubt blood on the side of one of the rims.

She waved it off with a simple hand motion and a shrug.

"Well, I just wanted to make sure that my efforts weren't in vain," she added with another half-hearted upturn of her mouth. Thankfully, she didn't have to make anymore small talk, because Shibi finally came back with a nurse. Shino and Tenten watched the two go over his chart, Shibi pointing to something and the nurse nodding with understanding.

With a friendly wink and a bow, she ninja-quicked it out of there, rolling her eyes at herself for even considering the possibility that the Aburame might at all be into her. Maybe he thought that she was just going to be a fling before he got into a real relationship with either a long term girlfriend, one that could be a potential bride, or perhaps she was the fling before a bride was forced upon him. Most clans in Konoha still practiced the fine art of making their heirs join matrimony by way of betrothing them at a young age to unite them with another clan, or imposed a bride or groom on them when the timing suited them later on in life for one political reason or anther.

Either way she felt almost used, or like something raw and exposed. It left a hollow place in her stomach as she traipsed her way back to her apartment, letting the chill of the night embrace and wrap around her like a sorrowing comfort.

She shouldn't have written the correspondent letters. She shouldn't have entertained the thought that Shino might be interested in her than anything more than a temporary relationship. For all she knew, he didn't think anything more of her than what was required by the job. The letters could be his way of joking around, even if she didn't think something like that would be necessarily funny. She had completely convinced herself that Aburame Shino was not interested in her when she reached her apartment, numb from all that had occurred.

She had kissed Shino that night, and he hadn't even remembered.

A/N: You know, this started out as a really funny fic, and then it all went downhill. My apologies for how incredibly non-lighthearted this became. Her mission with Shino will be anything but light and fluffy, so I guess that was my comic relief, just poorly put at the beginning of the fic instead of the middle.

Well, what do you expect? I'm not Shakespeare.

Obligatory disclaimer applies. I don't own.

Just had my fist real Bento Box. They are fantastic.

I just got a mini-trampoline for my birthday. I feel like I should have gotten this thing when I was twelve. It is also awesome, in case anyone was wondering. I am looking forward to many an ER visit from its misuse. I felt I had to share, as I am in a good mood today. Trampolines can do that to you.

Cheers!

Jaggedjacket


	7. Chapter 7

Tenten was so distracted by the crackling and popping of the twilight fire that she didn't notice the males of her troop gather together and draw straws to see who would come over to talk to her. She casually stoked the fire, eyes glazed over and only curtly nodded in acknowledgement as a body sat down next to her on the fallen log.

"You're welcome," Neji started, rubbing under his forehead plate where his cursed seal marred him. She had seen him do this a number of times when he was particularly worried, and only in the presence of his team.

She turned to him and only furrowed her eyebrows in response. He was being more cryptic than usual. What the hell was he talking about now?

"I made sure I was the one who drew the correct straw to come over and ask what is wrong with you," Neji responded and leaned slightly back on the log so she could have a full view of Gai and Lee duking it out in an all-out drawing-straws competition behind them. Why losing invoked such a weird passed time, she would never know. She had a vague inclination to ask how he managed to rig the drawing, but left the query for another time.

"Uh-huh," she sighed and repositioned herself into a more comfortable position, "And why, may I ask, did you do that?" Her voice even came out tired and only half-interested in what she was asking even to her. No wonder her team thought something was up.

Neji turned to face her, lifting an eyebrow of his own, "If you have to ask, then there must be more wrong with you than I originally anticipated." Tenten only snorted in reply. Neji didn't hesitate as he continued. "Hinata has informed me that she has noticed your absence at the compound lately." Neji began. Tenten mentally scrolled through the last time she had made time to talk to the younger kunoichi, clenching her teeth to hide the wince she wanted to make. She hadn't meant to neglect her friend. No doubt Hanabi would give her a dirty look the next time she came around for leaving her out as well. Perhaps she was avoiding Hinata because she thought Hinata might know, or not know, about her confusing feelings about Shino. She wasn't sure if she wanted anything confirmed either way, and she was certain that Hinata would probably know something, if there was something to know.

Neji interrupted her thoughts, "I must admit that I have noticed as well. You definitely add positively to the atmosphere during your stay." Neji's voice always came out even and low. Years of practice of carefully controlled vocalizations made him come across as cold and frigid. After all these years of him being her teammate, she was able to pick up in the slight offsetting tonality of a few words. Was Neji becoming emotional? Gai and Lee must have finally started to crack his brain. "You and Hinata are my closest friends, I would hate to have something bad happen to one of you, something that one of you might try to hide from me, so that I may not try and help and provide some kind of solution or relief." He shifted almost imperceptibly on the log. She wasn't sure when Neji had turned into Mr. Fixit, but the thought was nice. It had been three days since she had saved Shino, and she had left for a mission with her team early the next morning. They would arrive at the gates some time the next evening, and honestly, she doubted she wanted to read the letter from Shino gracing her door mat.

If he left a note at all.

Her thoughts were swirling around in uncertainty regarding the Aburame heir. The mission that Shibi proposed to her, her near death experience at the hands of Shino's destruction bugs, the kiss at the construction site, his hands roaming all over her body during their mission together, how he placed hot kisses all over her neck when he…

She shook her head. She needed to stop thinking about him like that. How good he had felt when his skin touched hers. He was distracting her to the point that NEJI noticed. This was not good.

She refocused on tending the fire, looking up for a brief moment to watch Gai and Lee raucously become overjoyed with the outcome of a round in Lee's favor. The sunset in the background could be seen even more clearly as the two embraced, bellowing each other's names as tears of joy ran down their faces. Tenten closed her eyes and rubbed one of her temples. Perhaps she should advise that they pull an all-nighter to get back to Konoha. Between Gai and Lee's antics, and Neji's sudden prying, all she could think about was getting as far away from there as humanly possible. She did not want to discuss her situation with Neji, as sweet, and perhaps creepy, as him being concerned was.

"I promise I am not mad at your cousin, and I will spend more time over there as soon as I get some things worked out. Aburame Shibi wants me to go on some kind of mission, and I have been mulling over weather I want to accept it or not."

Neji seemed satisfied with this reply, taking his own time to ruminate over all she had said for a few moments in austere Neji silence.

She didn't want him prying further, however, and sitting around the campfire seemed to make her even more antsy.

She happily slapped her lap, stood straight up and plastered on a fake smile.

"I bet we can race to Konoha tonight!" she exclaimed excitedly to everyone, "I bet you we can make it if we run there in five hours!"

"Let us strive to make it there in four!" Lee exclaimed, pumping a fist into the air with determination.

She totally asked for that.

With even more gusto she shouted, "Let's go!"

(o)

Stupid was a word that crossed her mind repeatedly as the gates of Konoha finally came into view. She was lucky she knew a remedy for the buildup of lactic acid in her muscles or she would be hurting like hell tomorrow. Her legs were aching for respite, and she fought a yawn as her body finally came to a halt in front of the guard post.

"I thought your team wasn't due back until afternoon?" the guard flipped over his papers on a clipboard with a quizzical look. _"Tomorrow_."

"The power of youth compels us," Tenten huffed and then sucked in enough air to recover and give a Gai-approving thumbs-up and smile at the attendant.

Gai nodded and winked at her while Lee beside him let out a loud, "Yosh!"

The guard flipped the file back neatly in place, and spoke an exaggerated, "_okay_," brushing off the off-kilter comments as he waved the team passed.

"Later guys!" Tenten called, already walking in the direction of her apartment before they had a chance to protest her departure. A clean getaway was definitely called for, and she was anxious to see if there was a note on her doorstep.

(O)

Tenten was asleep in her bath tub, head resting on the side of the porcelain, when a loud, hurried knock brought her sleepy eyes open suddenly. She sloshed sluggishly around the bathtub, making a poor attempt to regain her bearings in her groggy state. The water had long since gone cold. She had still been mulling over just why there was no note from Shino on her door mat when sleep and exhaustion finally won out. Muttering obscenities under her breath about falling asleep in her bathtub again, she hastily found a towel and wrapped herself in it before opening her front door.

She found herself suddenly wanting to hide under a rock for all eternity.

A momentarily shocked Shibi appeared on the other side of her door, more disheveled than she had ever seen in her life. The stridulous chorus of his bugs hitting so loud in her ear she nearly fell over when she opened the door.

"Please, you have to hurry," he pleaded, "get dressed, there is no time!"

Tenten blinked in response, trying to mute out the loud destruction bugs edging in their opinion. He looked panicked and scared, and Tenten realized that Shino must be in great peril for him to be so distraught.

"Give me twenty seconds to put on some clothes," she replied.

Shibi nodded grimly, looking like he was willing to give her anything at that point if she would just agree to come along.

She hopped into some clothes and they took off towards the compound. Shibi rambled on about atelectasis so fast that Tenten had to ask him to slow down twice before she got the gist of what he was he was trying to say.

"Whoa, an infection and a collapsed lung?" Tenten paused, "Why are you not going to the Hokage or Sakura for this! They are far better qualified!"

"Not for an Aburame," Shibi countered hurrying them along. "Shino's kakkai are confused and are low on chakra. They would attack them if they came near him. He can't breathe, he needs someone to heal him now or he won't make it another hour. The infection has gone systemic."

"What do_** I**_ have to do with this," she nearly hissed as they crossed the Aburame compound threshold. They ran down the hospital hallways, Tenten impressed with herself for still remembering the path to his room without needing to be led or directed by Shibi.

Before Shibi opened the door, he paused and spoke firmly, "Brace yourself."

All hell was breaking loose as he opened the door. Large amounts of kakkai were either flying about or crawling on everything. The two Aburame doctors were busy yelling at one another on either side of Shino's bed, injecting things into his IV and monitoring his breathing with a stethoscope. What she knew she should have expected, but didn't, was how noisy it was going to be with everyone's kakkai screaming at one another in response to such a delicate situation. She wanted to cover both of her ears with her hands but she remained calm and tried to adjust to the uproar. As she took a step in further, she noticed a bug clone in the corner, morphing in and out of a corporeal presence and into a swarm of kakkai over and over like a broken record or a fuzzy TV channel. What scared her most is that it was her figure that it was drifting in and out of. But she didn't have time to think about that as a crash cart was nearly clipping her hip to get into the room.

She got a look at Shino, the three seconds it was taking her to drink it all in. He looked ashen and emaciated, a far cry from when she left him on his bed, inviolable and unbroken. Dried blood lingered on the corner of his mouth and his head had fallen to the side of the pillow to be intubated. His swathed wound was bleeding out a gooey yellow in places where the blood wasn't so pronounced. He was dying, there was no doubt about it.

Then a familiar sting brought her attention to her wrist. The lone kakkai flew off after drinking its fill of her chakra, signaling to the others that a tasty meal had finally arrived. Shibi had meant for her to be the sacrificial lamb, offering up her chakra so that his son could live.  
>She should have known. She should have slammed the door in his face when she had the chance.<p>

She knew that the outcome would have been the same regardless, because even if he had told her that she was just coming over to have her chakra drained so that his kakkai could heal Shino, she would have gone with him anyways, willingly.

As they began to swarm over her body, she looked gravely at Shibi, "Tell Lee happy birthday for me tomorrow. His present is on my desk in my bedroom." They over powered her, but she refused to scream as they began to suck her life force away. She briefly hoped that Shibi might prevent her head from splitting open on the floor as she blacked out into oblivion.


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: I know this was just as long as the last chapter, I try to keep them all about 2 thousand words, but at least I updated quickly enough. Sorry for the cliff-hanger last time, I am hoping some humor and teasing of Shino in this chapter make up for it. Enjoy!

(l) (l) (l) (l) (l) (l) (l) (l)

Tenten blamed her sensei.

The fact that she was lying in a hospital bed and dying, yet still able to somehow be conscious enough to hear and understand a conversation was definitely beyond normal, ninja or not.

It must have been all of those times that he made her team meditate, she reasoned. Hours upon endless hours of him walking them through it as a guide and always talking about going to "your bunny filled meadow" finally paid off in a way she didn't think possible. She thought she was going mad until about three months after they had first started, then one day she finally got it. She stopped getting upset with the "stupid exercises" and was actually able to enjoy them and soon after, to look forward to them. She had to admit that Gai's soothing baritone, when not shouting about YOUTH! was actually quite calming. He had even gotten her to fall asleep on occasion after a few particularly grueling training sessions.

It was shortly after that that she found out that Gai had a good singing voice and her team began singing songs regularly around a campfire after missions. She had snuck up on Gai, humming an unfamiliar tune, one that she had never heard before as she practiced hiding her chakra as he broke a large branch up to use for firewood. Gai had smiled approvingly that her abilities had improved, a fatherly smirk on his face that he reserved for only her, and had stopped his humming as she helped to break up the larger branch into smaller pieces to bring back to the boys who had started the fire. She timidly asked if the song had words, and with a nod and another grin he taught her the lyrics and simple tune. Tenten listened intently as he ran through the whole song for her, and she drank up the music and Gai's undivided attention the whole time they gathered firewood. They came back to camp with armfuls of kindle, singing jovially and in good spirits. It had been a magical moment for Team Gai, one of Tenten's finer memories of her team, all singing around the warmth of the fire the first time as if they were normal teens at a regular camp. Even Neji had eventually joined in, albeit reluctantly, and she couldn't recall a more cheerful moment with her team. They were happy and normal; it made her miss her chunin days when things were simpler and less complicated.

The shouting voices brought her out of her nostalgia, and she could no longer ignore the shrilling sound of kakkai anxiously waiting to destroy or feed. It took all of her might to listen, as she wanted to drift back to a deeper state of being, one where she could effectively block out all of her surrounding and give in to peaceful slumber. She wanted to revisit the times where Lee and Neji would harmonize in tenor as Gai's deep melody would carry through and she would bring it all together with a female alto. She didn't want to hear two obstreperous male voices having a row in her hospital room. She didn't want them to fight with each other. She didn't want to be there, or feel terrible for eavesdropping in on their conversation unwittingly. Everyone seemed to have the volume of Gai and Lee, conversing with each other in exclamation points only.

"She could have died!"

"You realize that you would be dead right now if it wasn't for her!"

"You should not have put her life in jeopardy!"

"I took every precaution to make sure of her survival! She allowed them to take it that far, and it is clear that they had no intention of draining her to the point of death. They protected her from that, can't you see! That is why she needs you to accompany you on your mission next week. She is the only one now that will be able to heal you if anything should go wrong. Your kakkai have proven they will not deplete her to the point of death. It is imperative for the survival of Konoha that this mission be a success!"

"That's no excuse for why she is lying unconscious in a hospital bed!"

At this point Tenten was sure an all out brawl was going to happen right there in the middle of her hospital room, until she heard the door swing open and Sakura's voice very clearly and forcefully cut in above the ruckus of the frustrated kakkai and thier owners.

"I am going to have to ask you both to leave," Sakura didn't have a way of sounding polite when her patients were concerned. The buzz of the kakkai left quickly, and she could tell Sakura was over her checking her vitals. Soon after, she drifted back off into nothingness, lulled there by the sound of soft beepings of the machines around her.

(o)

When she actually came to, she was well aware that there was a weight in her right hand and was still too groggy to open her eyes. She stirred anyways, trying to move herself into a more comfortable position on the bed before slowly opening her heavy eyelids. The hum of kakkai died suddenly, as if calmed by her sudden arousal from sleep. Peeking out slowly through her eyelashes, she was grateful that the lights had been turned down low. By the looks of it, it was well into the night and whoever was holding her hand had fallen asleep by her bedside.

She was totally expecting it to be Lee. Lee was her best friend in this regard. If one of them was hospitalized, the other refused to leave their side until they could safely return home. Orphans had that kind of way of sticking together, forcing themselves on each other like family, because that is what teammates did, or at least that is what they did. It was a living nightmare when they both needed medical attention at the same time, and nurses worked around the clock to make sure neither one snuck out to check up on the other. They relied on Gai and Neji for updates and had to focus on healing until they could get medically discharged first so they could camp out in the others hospital room. So it came to her as a surprise when she noticed the lack of bandages on his hand.

It wasn't Lee.

She knew Gai had big, meaty hands with thick fingers, and Neji wouldn't be caught dead holding her hand. Mr. Will-Not-Show-Affection-Like-Gai-And-Lee would sooner gouge out both of his precious eyes. The hand that held hers wasn't her sensei's. It seemed larger than Neji's, even though she had already disproved that he could be holding her hand anyways. Either Sakura had some man-hands on her, or she was holding Shino's hand.

Or Shibi's she reasoned. That wasn't in the realm of impossibilities. It would just be weird and a tad creepy is all. Although the man was growing on her like a father figure, the way Gai Sensei had, and after giving it more thought, it wouldn't really be creepy if he was holding her hand. It would also mean that he hadn't intended for her to die in the first place, but she knew that already after overhearing the conversation earlier. It would mean the man was genuinely concerned about her welfare. She suddenly hoped that he _was_ holding her hand; one could never have too many surrogate fathers as an orphan.

She squeezed the hand she held, hoping to rouse whoever it was out of their sleep.

As it turned out, it wasn't Shibi.

Shino squeezed her hand back, finally taking his head off of the side of the bed that he had rested it on and smiled up at her, a sloppy sleep-induced grin that showed off those beautiful teeth of his and had her heart monitor pausing briefly in its beeps. If Lee wasn't here, that meant that he was injured or didn't know where she was.

"You're alive," she spoke with a scratchy voice, and looked around to see if she could spot Lee somewhere in the room.

"So are you," he spoke with relief over her and clasped his other hand on top of hers, sandwiching her hand between his.

"You drool on me? My leg's cold." She mumbled cheekily to him. The humor wasn't lost on him and he chuckled with a low voice in response.

"The blanket fell off," he explained as he tugged it firmly back in place. The action left her hand cold from the loss of touch and heat, to which her body responded with an involuntary shiver. One hand still firmly held onto hers, and as soon as the task was complete, he rested his hand back on top of hers. He gently rubbed the top of her hand to warm it further, "Do you require another blanket? I can retrieve one from the hall closet for you if you do."

It was such a Shino-type response that she almost laughed. She smiled up at him instead, able to contain her laughter by looking at the serious look upon his face for her response. She had a feeling he would do just about anything she asked right then, but all she could think about were those tempting lips of his that were now kissing the back of her hand in eager anticipation of a reply from her. How was she supposed to respond when he was blatantly distracting her with kisses?

"No," she gave her short explanation as she sat up and pooled the covers around her middle. She noted the white spotted curtain covering her, and the horrible chill forming on her back as she leaned forward. She looked sternly at Shino. "Why am I in a hospital gown?"

"Why? Because you are in a hospital," he answered and quickly followed it up with a hasty, "which means you should not move until the doctor says that it is permissible." The words were sternly spoken with worry as she let her legs drop over the side of the bed and began to head towards the bathroom.

"What are you doing?" Shino stayed at her side and supported her as if she were a fragile creature.

"I have to piddle. Is that enough information for you? Or do you need a blow-by-blow once I slam the door in your face?"

Shino straighten to almost his full length and nodded to say that he would be just outside the door waiting if she needed anything. The offer was made hesitantly, almost in a pout, and with those full lips of his it made it all the more adorable as she slipped behind the door.

When she reopened the door after making sure her hair looked immaculate and shifting and retying the accursed hospital gown so no one could see her backside, she brushed right passed Shino and headed out of the room.

"Where are you going?" Shino quickly followed to her side as he tried to stop her. "Sakura needs to grant you medical clearance before your discharge. You are not authorized or permitted to leave until such time."

"Don't get your goggles in a twist, Aburame," she blew off his warning as she continued down the hall, "I just need a shower. And since your hospital rooms are lacking in that department, it means I have to either find one here, or go home and take a shower there. Now," she stopped to look at him, and she could see his eyebrows furrow, creating another adorable look and making a crease by the bridge of his lenses. "You can either escort me to a shower of your choice, or you can let me wonder aimlessly around in a hospital gown searching for one. Your call."

After looking her up and down for a few seconds, he took her arm gently and after clearing his throat spoke lowly, "This way."

"Thank you," she offered kindly, suddenly glad that she not only had his proximity and warmth and touch but also a firm arm to lean on. She felt winded and she had only walked down the length of a hall. As they snaked in and out of hallways and door jams, she was surprised that she was escorted to the bathroom on the wing off of his bedroom. Perhaps that just guaranteed her privacy.

"So are you going to help me scrub my back or are you going to watch voyeuristically from the sidelines?" she spoke without cracking a smile, but the stunned visage of Aburame Shino from her sheer gall was too much to keep stoic for long. He swallowed hard and remained perfectly still until she couldn't help but split into an evil grin. "I'll be out in a jiff, any chance I could borrow some clothes?"

A head nod was all that she received as he forced himself to tear away and head down the hall. It was too bad, really. She had seriously wanted someone to wash her back.


	9. Chapter 9

Tenten dropped her "everything is okay" face and settled for sighing as soon as she entered the bathroom and listened for Shino's footsteps to fade. The bathroom wasn't as big as she expected. It had a nice bathtub to it, enough to soak properly, yet not too big as to feel guilty for filling it up just to bathe herself. She decided to rifle through the contents of everything that she could possibly get her hands on, just to pass the time while the tub filled. She found some standard issue soap in a medicine cabinet and placed them on the edge of the tub.

Further investigation revealed some colored soap in a small plastic tub filled with bath toys and brightly colored washcloths. If she wasn't mistaken, the toys were the same ones that she had given Kurenai for her baby shower. That must mean that Shino somehow got a hold of them so he could partake in the joys of bathing little Asuma Jr. the times that he served on babysitting duty. She herself bought a similar set for her apartment, and the last time that she had the little tike over, she was pretty sure that more water ended up on the floor than in the tub. Asuma Jr. had finally gotten clean, and she smiled at the memory of getting nearly just as wet herself. Perhaps Shino had just bought the same repeat set she had as to keep some kind of consistency between sitters, not that he knew that she had bought another set for her apartment, right? She wouldn't have put it past him to think of keeping the same toys that Kurenai used at her place, so she chalked it up to great minds think alike and left the plastic tub to check out the well-stocked medical cabinet.

The tub was nearly full when there was a firm but soft knock on the door.

Noticing she was still in the hideous hospital gown, she quickly ditched it for a soft and fluffy robe hanging on a nearby hook by the door. She turned off the water, just to be sure that it wouldn't overflow during the sudden visit and cracked open the door with curiosity.

Shino's visage appeared, and the sudden movement of his over jacket by the neck area made her realize that he had probably just swallowed. He had put on his annoying overcoat, making it hard to distinguish his features. He looked tense, which made her self-consciously pull the robe around her tighter. Her eyebrows arched upward, asking the question for her why he knocked. When he didn't reply to a reason for the interruption she decided to tease him once more. She very carefully schooled her voice and asked as if she was completely serious, "Did you change your mind about joining me or did you just want to see how I looked in your bath robe?"

The taller shinobi looked like he wasn't breathing for few beats, or perhaps he was considering one of the two.

Had she gone too far? Was the teasing on her part all that bad?

"Look, Shino, I wasn't trying to upset you…"

"Take this," he suddenly spoke, and thrust a set of bath oils in her face.

"I can't use these," she spoke with awe at the luxurious bath salts and perfumes. "These aren't regulation." She shook her head and handed them back.

Shino didn't even bother to look down to take them from her. "They are part of your cover for our mission."

Tenten retracted her out stretched hand to take a better look at the package. The bath soaps were opium based and the oils were just as expensive and laced with citronella. The mineral salts came from what she could only imagine was some place exotic, and the thought occurred to her that she had always wanted to have a set as extravagant as the one she was currently thumbing through.

"These are way too expensive, Shino, even for a cover. Unless I am posing as a Kage's daughter or something, I don't think I can accept these." Her voice was small and quiet, like she was suddenly humbled by the idea of not ever being able to afford such items. She offered out her hand again, and was shocked that Shino had sandwiched his large hands over hers and the gift.

"I do not feel that the items are too opulent. Why? Since you are posing as my fiancée, I would not want anything but the best for my future wife." There was a sincerity and genteelness of his voice that had her throat trying to swallow itself as she dumbly stared back at him. She was suddenly aware of how warm his hands were as they held hers, and the sudden shift of his inner jacket around his face had her thinking that maybe he might have been smiling at her.

The overwhelming feeling of completeness that she shared with Shino was suddenly washed away by the fact that this was going to be just and act and that someone like her would never be allowed to marry into a prominent clan such as the Aburames. It left her with a saddened feeling, one that was probably written all over her face.

"Do you know what my cover story is? I am sure that I would have to be a part of a wealthy clan in order have the honor of being your wife."

Shino cocked his head slightly to the side as if asking a question he couldn't yet formulate with words.

"It doesn't matter," she smiled a fake smile up at him, "Thank you for the oils. Your future wife is a very lucky woman to be so spoiled." And at that she slipped her hand and the oils from his and closed the door.

She finished filling the tub, adding super hot water to top it off before adding some of the pink mineral salts that smelled laced with some kind of citrus scent. As she slipped into the tub she was able to pinpoint the smell to grapefruit and some kind of flower that had a delightfully delicate sweet smell that complimented the subtle hints of the pink fruit. After a thorough wash and some squirts of some bath soaps that bubbled up into a rich lather, she left the tub feeling silky smooth and feeling like she smelled cleaner than any other time she had taken a long soak.

The amber perfume she used sparingly, only dabbing the opiate scent a drop at a time behind each ear. The citronella based oil she knew was normally worn by nobles as an insect repellant, which seemed ironic to her, and so she placed a small amount on each ankle and left it at that. She certainly felt like she smelled more girly than she had in her entire life. She wondered exactly how long they were going to leave for their mission if she was told to use them at this point. It thrilled her and caused her great apprehension to know so little of the mission at hand, but that she would be acting in part as the betrothed future Mrs. Aburame, heir to the mighty and secretive Kakkai using clan of Konoha, it caused an indescribable feeling of pride, nerves and giddiness that she hoped the eventual real fiancée would have at the very prospect.

Indulging herself in some fabulously silky lotion, she carefully placed the bottles of the oils, salts, soaps and lotions in the small pouch and headed out to get dressed.

She was starting to think that the overcoat had some kind of jutsu on it to conceal how loud the kakkai became once stirred into a frenzy. Even as exposed as he was during the mission she had with him, it must have taken nearly all of his control and chakra to keep the humming of the insects down so that the others couldn't hear it.

Somehow, that left her feeling urked that he felt had to hide that part of himself, and that he would _choose_ to hide that part of himself _from her_. After all that they had been through, it kind of hurt that the guy wasn't comfortable enough in front of her to let a little of his guard down. Hadn't Shino figured out that she like him for who he was, bugs and all?

Well, she wasn't about to stand around and not tell him so. She was determined to put a stop to it all, as she entered his room. A pair of capris and a shirt lay on his bed neatly folded for her to get dressed into, so she thought it best to put some clothes on before telling him off. She was carefully untying the robe when two shaky hands came over hers, and a very tall figure pressed against her back, as warm as the water in the tub, but much more firm and pleasant than a hot soak.

"I wish to leave before you get dressed," the heady voice explained in her ear, "Why? Because I believe I would be more of a hindrance than helpful in the task of putting your clothes on." His nose ran over the outside of her ear, tickling the sensitive skin while his hands tied the robe back together for her, but not without him touching as much of the backs of her hands as possible with the tips of his fingers. "For the record," another husky whisper in her ear, his lips grazing the shell of it as he spoke, "you've always smelled _divine_." As if to confirm what he was speaking about he took a long deep breath of her neck before stepping away from her and vanishing through the doorway.

Was every encounter she had with the man going to be so damn sexy? She wasn't sure her raging hormones could handle him in close proximity like that without at least getting to nibble on those full lips of his. She slipped the robe off and reveled in the fact that she would be surrounded by the man's scent as she put on his clothes. Obviously they had come out of his genin days, but they smelled like they had been freshly laundered and still held on tight to the smell that was masculine and pleasant and Shino that she had a hard time not smiling as she continued to smell the shirt in deep breaths.

Then she noticed the mission scroll lying innocuously on his pillow, her name scrolled out in big letters meant for her eyes only. It was an official document given from the Hokage herself. No more personal favors, this meant business, and perhaps it meant that Shibi wasn't willing to take the chance that she would say no.

The better part of her self preservation must have been tapped out at the moment, because all she could think about was getting more skin to skin contact with Shino and as much as she could during the upcoming mission.

She wasn't going to go out without a fight.

(o)

A/N: This took too long to update. My apologies for the wait. More to come soon! Thank you to all who reviewed! I have 28 people who have alerted this story, so I didn't want to keep my loyal fans waiting any longer! Thank you! Thank you! For all of your support and love!

Cheers!

Jaggedjacket


	10. Chapter 10

"Don't start, Hyuga," Tenten warned as she focused her eyes on the fire. She threw another bit of broken twig off the large branch she was using as kindle into the flames and arched an eyebrow up instead of turning towards him as he sat next to her.

"I assure you that…" he paused, wrinkling his brow. He sat causally back on the log as if he had remembered something and looked like he was pondering his next sentence. He stated almost to himself, "Now I get the nectar reference."

She gave him a half-lidded _you-are-pushing-your-luck_ look and clenched her jaw. Neji quickly cleared his throat as if to apologize, and ended up stating a quick "sorry," anyways.

"It is just… you smell like a _girl_," he said suddenly and unhelpfully.

"I _AM_ a girl," she left out the _dipshit_ at the end of the sentence, though she was sure Neji felt the sentiment just as well.

"Well," Neji tried to explain quickly, shifting with nervousness on the log, the even tones of his voice starting to fray in fear of her wrath. "You are a _ninja_."

"I fail to see how those are mutually exclusive," she could hear Gai and Lee, who had confiscated her bag of oils, perfumes, bath salts and lotions, discussing the items with awe as they rummaged through the gift bag that Shino had given to her a few days before. They sniffed at bottles with fervor, then traded the one they were sniffing for whatever one was in the other's hands. Tenten thought they kind of looked like monkeys finding tools for the first time. They oohed and ahhed at each scent, and the slight clinking of the glass bottles made Tenten wonder if the strong men had enough sense not to break them with their super strength during their inspection.

Neji tilted his head to the side, then narrowed his gaze on her bangs. He reached a hand out to touch a wisp of hair between the pads of his fingers and examined it.

Tenten let out an exasperated breath, rolled her eyes and leaned over on the log to reach for the second goodie bag that Shibi had presented her with. Shibi insisted that she take it with her before she left the compound, and she had fallen in love with the shampoo, conditioner, and leave-in shine spray ever since. She had never been pampered like this before. She normally got a weapon for any kind of special occasion, not that she was complaining about that. Girly-girl things like this never, ever crossed her path. She simply couldn't allow herself to feel guilty for liking and using something so completely wonderful. She knew she didn't deserve it, but part of her wanted to think that Shino thought she did. She didn't want to let go of that.

Neji smiled like a little kid and turned around, swinging his leg over the log to straddle it while Tenten took out his hair tie and began to comb through his long locks with the wide-toothed comb that had come with the set.

"Just when I was starting to catch up on not having the worst hair on this team. No wonder you guys don't consider me a girl." Tenten muttered as she sprayed the hair shine on Neji's already perfect hair. Lee and Gai crooned in the background about climbing the Himalayas, and she remembered one of her bath salts had _pink Himalayan salt_ in the ingredients.

"Shino, rest assured, hasn't forgotten you are a girl," Neji reminded her and turned around on the log to face her.

Tenten let out a long exhaustive sigh.

"Alright Hyuga," Tenten put the sprits bottle and comb back in her pack, "What are you getting at?"

He didn't have to shrug his shoulders. He merely stared at her sternly with wide, white eyes. "You tell me."

"Hey, it's not like…" she didn't get to finish her statement as Gai and Lee had sandwiched her in an organ-squishing hug. Tenten turned red and worried about her spleen, while Gai and Lee gushed about flowers and youth, all the while holding the expensive fragrant bottles in their hands and weeping.

Neji snatched a bottle out of Lee's hand and smelled the opulent oil with a regal authority. The look on his face told her that his discussion with her about the Aburame was far from over.

Tenten just waited out the tears of joy and jumping up and down with enthusiasm until she could breathe again. Gai and Lee were especially riled up about her little gifts. She was kind of hoping that the aroma therapy would have calmed them down instead of hyping them up. Then again, she was quite sure a tranq gun was the only thing capable of getting those members of her team to settle down once someone got them going.

Neji handed her the bottle he took from Lee. "I hope you know that as wealthy as my family is, Hinata doesn't even have anything comparable to this quality."

She wasn't sure she knew how to feel about that.

She knew that she missed Shino's company. She missed casually meeting him outside the Hyuga compound before and after training, and flirting with him. She missed how his hands always found their way out of his pockets and onto her skin, even if it was only for the briefest of moments. She missed walking with him after training was done, brushing up beside him and sharing private conversations and thoughts and jokes and smiles. She had gotten quite attached to him, and now being sent off to northern Fire country seemed like a punishment, a banishment of sorts, all in the name of some crazy mission meant to flush out another wack-job of a shinobi that had a vendetta against the Aburame.

It was nice that her team was allowed to escort her. They would be staying with her and taking on the mission of "protecting" her while she waited until her "fiancé" came to court her. They would remain with her until the mission was complete, staying on the grounds as extra insurance. Apparently, there was a non-familial clan, the Kobashii, that regularly interacted with the Aburame clan and were more than happy to house Team Gai in an effort to snuff out the nin who had also been a mutual thorn in their side.

The Kobashii clan owned a large estate on the outskirts of a provincial town on the edge of a large river that supported much of the town's commerce. She wasn't surprised that the clan owned and specialized in growing medicinal and aromatic plants, the same ones that no doubt were in her little bath kit she had been given by Shino.

She wasn't sure if she felt better or worse that the expensive products that were given to her had probably come by the Aburame family without much effort or cost.

She decided it wasn't worth wasting her time thinking about and focused on her mission instead. Yoshin Nami swore to make it his personal mission to get back at the Aburame clan. Tenten wondered if this didn't have something to do with the last mission she was assigned with Shino, since the ring leaders of that drug carting syndicate also held a personal grudge against his clan. Shibi had hypothesized with Shikaku that his attack would be personal, making his son, or anyone surrounding his son, a target.

Tenten was just bait for this guy to take. She was to stay as a special guest in the Kobashii residence on the outskirts of the city, exposing herself as the future Aburame wife to Shino during her visits to the city in an attempt to draw him out. Shino would come to the Kobashii estate to woe her on dates, parading her around town for everyone to see.

She wondered what it would be like, pretending to date the Aburame and living at the Kobashii residents for an extended period. She couldn't get Shibi's voice out of her head about how she was going to be the only one to save him if it all came down to it. The building pressure of the mission mixed with her real life feelings towards Shino gave Tenten a very bad feeling about how all of this was going to go down.

Tomorrow, her team would arrive at their destination, and she would find out just what she was up against as soon as Shino arrived there a week later.


	11. Chapter 11

Tenten squinted against the golden rays of the sun outlining the rolling hills above her. Sunset would arrive in an hour or so, she reasoned. Tenten tried to reflect on how quickly the whole evening had gone, since Shino's arrival earlier that day. It seemed like a whirlwind of people had surrounded her that morning, fussing over her to make sure she looked perfect. The traditional robes for Aburame courting were constraining, and Tenten had been taking on a shorter stride to accommodate the tight-fitting clothing. She itched at the high collar over her neck with a single finger, hoping that the two escorts from the mansion behind her hadn't noticed her slip in décor.

The tall man next to her was draped in equal amounts of suffocating garments, which she thought he looked particularly handsome in. He was still sporting the classic Aburame shades, which probably helped him in times like this when the sun was spilling yellow beams, effectively making it so that everything was the same bright color. She had to admit that even with the blinding light of the sun, everything looked gorgeous as Shino, Tenten, and their two escorts walked along the hilly fields.

Suddenly there was a nod from Shino, a short clip of his angular jaw and the two escorts walked away to give the couple their distance. Shino and Tenten headed up to a small dip in the land, surrounded by hills in every direction while the two brightly clad body guards strolled over to the nearby pond to watch a flock of cranes.

In the decline of landscape there was an old knotted tree with firm branches that shot up past the tallest of the hills to over look the depth of the valley. Tenten instantly wanted to climb it, despite the restrictions of her attire. She took in the massive tree before her, the trunk thick enough to hide her entire team behind it with no one shoulder touching the other. They walked along the knotted roots forming up out of the ground to just behind the massive construct of aged bark. Here, there was complete privacy not only from their escorts, but from all prying eyes of the lofty hills as well. Tenten almost couldn't keep her eyes off of how marvelous the granulated bark appeared. She pawed at it with her fingers, stroking the brown waves as she circled around it.

"Beautiful," managed to escape her lips with more wonder, almost absentmindedly. Shino was close by, and offered up with a sincerity she wasn't expecting as he was turned to fully face her.

"Yes, I must agree." His thick clothes weren't quite tall enough on his collar to hide his face or neck, which made it easy for her to distinguish his level of honesty despite the fact that he still wore his protective eye-wear. She rather liked watching his Adam's apple bob when he swallowed as she approached nearer to him almost brushing up next to his dark silken outer robe. The intricate details of both of their outfits were astounding. She hadn't noticed the seals discreetly woven into the fabric of Shino's until she was this close, however. She pocketed that information away even as she formulated the hypothesis that those seals prevented her from hearing any of his destruction bugs.

She rather missed the comforting hum as she walked beside Shino for the last part of the evening. She hadn't noticed the absence at the festival. There was too much noise and commotion around them for her to focus as she met the Aburame heir from opposite ends of the town. The great well of citizens around her to meet the well dressed and handsome man at the center of town was a bit overwhelming. She had been paraded through the village proper as part of their custom before the courting rite was to be performed. She had been a bundle of nerves and apprehension, her constrained movement in her bright- silken attire did nothing to calm the ninja in her that wanted to be prepared to move freely if suddenly attacked. Then, when Shino walked up to her in town, the roar of the crowd was filled with cheers and celebration, and everything that she had heard over the last week about how his clan helped the town flourish surrounded her with shouts of appreciation to the young man before her. She hadn't heard more than the gentle orders of the escorts behind her over the loud pounding of her heart rising above the cacophony of the town's people. It was an odd request, and she was certain that they probably had to repeat themselves several times before she was able to follow their strange orders. Tenten had nervously slipped out of her sandals and presented her feet to the Aburame, who knelt down on one knee, took out a small bottle of aromatic oil and rubbed a few drops of it affectionately on the bottoms of her feet. She thought the embrocating might tickle, but Shino seemed to be an expert at doing this, at least it seemed to _her_ he knew what he was doing. She felt a pang of self-consciousness about him touching her feet that quickly dissipated when Shino stood up suddenly and placed two more drops on either one of her wrists and then dabbed more on her neck in a very personal in-your-space kind of way.

She should have noticed the absence of his kakkai bug's noise then, for the crowd had somberly all gone quiet as he placed more drops of the liniment on her wrists with his own, then two more with the pads of his fingers behind her ears. She had a strange feeling as she inhaled his wonderful masculine clean scent that this part was somehow _not_ part of the ritual. The raucous denizens of the village roared with approval, and the slight upturn of the corner of Shino's mouth made him look undeniably sexy and smug as he stepped back to let the crowd of people take in his actions. Tenten concluded that they approved of his choice of a bride with the way that they had gleefully reacted to his apparently brazen act of putting on the ritualistic oil. She recalled now that the escorts behind her had gasped with delight and had tittered to one another afterwards.

She needed to find out just what she had been anointed with and why it was so special that he had put more on her wrists and neck.

She brushed up against the Aburame's chest only to reach around him to gain leverage to a tree branch behind him. Shino had taken it as a move to get closer to him and was a bit surprised when she was suddenly out of reach, but really the sparkle of mischief in her eyes should have warned him that she was about to do something naughty. Chakra pulling herself up, she jumped half way up the tree in one straight shot. Nearly falling off a sturdy branch from lack of full range of motion to her legs, she hiked up the constricting material until it pooled around her waist and chakra hopped until she was on a branch that showed her the view of the valley below.

She leaned nonchalantly, with one hand on a branch suspending her weight and the other keeping her dress up at her hips. Shino cautiously joined her at the top of the tree, filtering through branches to watch the sparkling sun cascade the last brilliant rays of the day between the swell of the mountain-like hills around them on all sides. Here she could make out the fields that corresponded to the mansion they were staying in, noting the purple swatch that must have been the lavender field and a corner of red that could have been one of the many aloe crops. The valley was home to acres of medicinal plants that the Kobashii Family farmed and turned into essential oils or salves, the rest was sold to pharmaceutical companies to turn into medicine that was helping treat recovering addicts. Yoshin Nami wanted nothing more than to get the better part of the province addicted to his own brand of substances, none of which were remotely organic and all of which were completely illegal and detrimental to ones health.

Tenten couldn't help but think peaceful thoughts as she overlooked the expanse of the valley, lush with verdant life and begging her to run through them barefoot like a child.

"Tenten," Shino's voice broke the reverie, and she paused another moment as she looked longingly at the hills before turning to him to give him her undivided attention. Eyebrows arched in anticipation, Shino continued by climbing to her and making sure the branch would support both their weight. "This is the only part where we will be completely alone with one another, and I am afraid that it will only be for a short time. The escorts will leave us alone for exactly ten minutes, after that we will be expected to follow them back."

Tenten mulled all this over in her mind. Ten minutes alone with Shino on every date that they had until the mission was over. The salacious part of her mind wandered to just how badly she could rile him up in ten minutes, another part threw a temper tantrum that it was _only_ ten minutes, and yet another part of her was just happy to get even that diminutive amount of time by herself with him. "I see," she answered cautiously back to him. "How much time to we have left?"

"About seven minutes," he inched closer to her stealthily like a predator, "Long enough to touch all of that skin you have exposed and are tempting me with."

Tenten had forgotten about her dress improperly up around her sides exposing the side of her hip bone and teasing him with a flash of lacey underwear. She stupidly looked down to what he was referring to, and it was enough of a distraction that he could gain the upper hand. He somehow managed to get her to the base of the trunk and push her flush against it, and as promised, his hand was thoroughly exploring the soft spot on her upper thigh. She had to let go of her dress in order to keep her balance and brace herself against the welcomed assault. His lips were on top of hers just as fast as his hand was reaching around to find the boarder of her panties. She melted into the fullness of his kisses, how he pressed his body against hers letting her know just how much his ached to be as close as possible to her own.

"Wait," she pushed him gently, but firmly away with both hands, steadying herself with a burst of chakra to her feet to maintain her footing. "What was that back there with the oil? Why did you end up putting it on my wrist and neck and not just my feet?" He must not have seen the concern in her eyes because his expression looked similar to what it looked like after he had completed the act. Fighting off a full blown cocky grin, he tried to steady his features, but Tenten could see right through him.

"It was just another way that Kiba will be able to track you. Why? Because I have asked that he be assigned to this mission as well in the event that I am unable to locate you with my kakkai and something has gone wrong." He leaned back to her, but this time to play with a strand of her hair with his finger. He marveled over it like it was some kind of rarity and tried to move back to her to resume his passionate worship of her with his mouth.

"Hold up," Tenten made him pause once more, "This barely smells," she sniffed at her wrist, "And before you go spouting on about the molecular structure of this essential oil please note two things: One, that I know more about the Inuzuka Family than you might think, and Two, I have gained quite a bit of knowledge about the plants that grow around these parts over the last week while you've been gone, so think twice about trying to deceive me about the nature of your gesture tonight."

"I was hoping that I would have more time before an explanation of my actions would need to be fully accounted for," Shino confessed. Tenten had already reasoned that the oil kit that he had given her before the mission was for the purpose of Kiba being able to track her.

"What did you put on me?" she asked again and smelled at her wrist, hoping to detect a familiar scent that she might be able to place, she only seemed to smell slightly citrusy.

"Melissa officinalis," Shino started to continue and then stopped. With a deep sigh of regret and grinding down on his jaw, he took both of her hands in his, "Our time is up. I must explain myself at our next meeting." He sifted through her hair and she couldn't help but feel at ease with the action, even if he hadn't completely explained his behavior, something told her that it was not done unkindly.

On the walk back to the plantation, Tenten wracked her brain to try and remember what exactly melissa was and why it was such a big deal that Shino had used more on her. She would find out soon enough, however, her next meeting with him would be in two more days.

A/N:

First of all, thank you to my loyal and faithful fans for favoriting/reviewing/alerting this piece of fanfic. It totally means a whole lot to me that I have so many reviews and that so many have alerted and favorite this fic over any of my other works.

The next few chapters are going to have a lot of information about certain plants. All of the information about what the plants do is going to be accurate according to the research I am doing about them. If anyone would like more information about anything I am talking about, feel free to PM me and I will either give you a straight answer or direct you to a place where you can get your question answered.

As always, thank you kindly for your love and support!

Jaggedjacket


	12. Chapter 12

Maito Gai hesitantly knocked on Tenten's door. She opened it up with a smirk formed on the corner of her lips as Gai smiled at her quietly. He quickly ducked inside and searched around for any other chakra signatures or tiny body guards hiding in the shadows.

"Are they gone?" He asked in hushed tone as he closed the curtains to Tenten's balcony veranda.

"Who?" Tenten tried her most innocent face and voice out on her master. With a frustrated furrowed brow, Gai cross his arms over his chest to show he wasn't fooling around.

"Your body guards," he intoned carefully to let her know she was pushing it.

"Yes of course Gai-Sensei, they left twenty minutes ago. It was very kind of you to check up on me." They both knew he was actually hiding from them, one more so than the other. Gai knew Tenten's schedule down pat, knew when guard change outs were, knew who was supposed to be where at all times, knew exactly when the two guards left for the evening, ect. He was taking liberties by hiding from a certain slender water-jutsu master who had been making googly eyes at him since his arrival on the estates. Gai, ever one to be professional, didn't want this minor set-back to interfere with the outcome of this mission, so he decided the best decision would be to avoid her like a school-boy who thought that all girls had cooties.

Pretending to check up on her, AKA hiding from a very attractive and deadly kunoichi, really, Tenten would have thought that her sensei was _gay_ the way he was avoiding her. Since Tenten knew he wasn't, she had to wonder why he was taking such extreme measures to stay away from the female presence.

"Gai-Sensei," Tenten ventured as the man continued to check outside the curtains carefully for any sudden movements across the lawn, "Shinju was asking about you earlier," at this he stiffened and pulled the curtain shut. "She wanted to know what your favorite color was, I told her that you liked to see women wear purple, as it reminds you of royalty, and it seemed appropriate that she wore that color all this week, don't you think? I certainly thought so." She smiled again as her master looked at her with a reprimanding look.

"I need to focus on keeping you safe from that mad-man, not getting distracted with a pretty female," he chastised, but whether that was for Tenten's benefit or his own, it was unclear.

"So you find her attractive?" Tenten couldn't help herself at the small window her sensei had allowed her to keep prying. With another stern look, Gai let her know once again she was needed to back off. Gai looked like he was going to seriously reprimand her, but brought out a letter from his flak jacket instead.

"Will you please deliver this to her?" His low voice almost seemed as if the letter were life or death and that he was completely going outside his jurisdiction of asking her to play delivery girl for such a thing.

"Can I read it?" Tenten asked with eager anticipation, wide eyed at the prospect of discovering what might actually be a love letter from _The Maito Gai_, someone who screamed about YOUTH! on a regular basis. She was already unfolding the note open, watching her master's eyes roll into the back of his head as she did. Since he made no attempt at stopping her, Tenten took it as a sign that she could continue.

Quickly scanning the letter, which was much shorter than Tenten imagined that it would be, she noted that it only stated that if she was interested in him, that it would have to wait until after the mission.

"This is boring," she accused her sensei, who only cleared his throat in response. "Where is the Power of Youth, or Springtime of Youth, or at the very least a _love poem _or _sonnet_?" The disappointment tapered on the edge of her voice as she turned the letter over and back as if expecting more words to magically appear before her. "I don't understand."

Gai looked far too composed and calm. He looked worn for some reason, as if this was not the first time he was presented with a situation like this. Tenten handed the note back to her sensei, shaking her head to show how little she understood of the whole scenario.

"Maybe its best if you just give this to her sensei. I don't want her questioning me about this, especially since I can't give her any decent answers." Tenten let out an exhaustive exhale. The situation was much more complicated than she had anticipated, and she definitely didn't want to get caught in the middle.

Gai graced her with a half-smile, as if to congratulate her, and somehow, she knew that she had been set up.

"That was a test, wasn't it?" Tenten folded her arms over her chest as one of her eyebrows raised with disapproval. "Where is the real letter you are going to give her?" Tenten couldn't help but place her hands on her hips as Gai's smile split his face in a very mischievous way. The playful look in his eye told her he _did_ have a long-winded letter for the cute little water jutsu expert, but she wasn't going to get to see it until _after_ Shinju read it, and that was only _if_ she was willing to share. With a very petulant huff, since her master was quite happy at not budging at letting her read the _real_ letter, Tenten settled for bout of tisking, and shaking her head.

"That was just mean, Sensei. I'm telling her you are a tease." Finger outstretched with accusation, Tenten's bluff was met with a low chuckle.

"Don't go doing me any favors."

Pinching the bridge of her nose, she squeezed her eyes shut. She should have seen walking right into that one, and she began to wonder if Kakashi's perversion wasn't starting to rub off on her master, "So what was the _real_ reason you came to see me?"

"Being able to handle matters of the heart delicately is always a lesson to be learned." Gai muttered pedantically with a hidden meaning. Tenten understood. She knew very well about his concern over Shino. Gai was always going to be protective of her, and that must have been his way of feeling her out to see if she was ready for the gravity of either this mission, a real relationship with him, or both.

His eyes arched playfully while his head roll to the side as he modestly uncovered the book he was hiding from his back, "And I might have found that book that you said you were looking for in the library while I was in town."

Tenten nearly squealed with delight at her sensei as she took the book from his massive hand. With a suddenly serious tone, he noted before completely relinquishing the book, "There are two things that I found out about the oil while I was in town that wasn't in the book." He finally released the thick ancient volume as he spoke. She greedily took it in her hands and slid her palms over the hard cover as she took it up on its spine to flip to the index. She was all too eager to find out more about the oil that Shino had used on her and what it meant. Gai continued to speak to her as she searched for the proper entry. "Melissa is an essential oil that they don't make here on the property, it is imported." Gai began as Tenten found the page she was looking for and began flipping to it immediately.

_Melissa Officinalus_

Tenten scanned the entry for anything out of the ordinary that might have stuck out that would give a good reason why Shino would have put so much of it on her. Made from lemon balm leaves…used in the Middle Ages by the Carmelite nuns…usually diluted with lemon or citronella…used to treat a myriad of health problems…sedative properties…

Wait, was he trying to sedate her? She read that part over again, and found that it was only considered sedative because it treated distress, shock, nervousness, depression, and insomnia. Upon further reading of the medicinal properties of Melissa, Tenten found out that it was also used for treating viral infections and helped to fight off inflammation.

He wanted her healthy right? Shino wanted her to stay healthy, so he put extra on her for that reason? So that she wouldn't get sick? It wasn't like she was ill already that she required that kind of attention. The information just didn't seem to sit right, she felt like a piece of the puzzle was missing. Gai's voice kept talking in the background as she mulled over the information that she found, even while she was reading up on how the Carmelite nuns made "Carmelite Water" used in their famed facial toner. Something wasn't adding up. Then her sensei spoke the word right as she happened to read it from the book.

Melissa was used to promote fertility.

Gai continued to ramble on about the Aburame festival that she was a part of the other night, explaining their customs regarding the ritual to the fertility gods. She seemed to only hear every other word he spoke as her heart beat wildly in her chest. Only one drop was ever used on the bottom of the feet, Gai explained on, as his voice faded in and out. He mentioned something about the power of youth, then followed that up with a well thought-out and viscous plan to destroy Shino if he were to ever touch her inappropriately, but Tenten was only half listening. Gai prattled on about how many oils were used to promote fertility, but how Melissa was the most expensive one, and how it had never been used before, and how Shino had used it _on purpose_.

Gai knew the gravity of the situation, the concern for her laced in his voice as he continued on. Tenten was barely able to hear it over the roar of blood pulsing madly in her head.

Then it all clicked together as the book clapped shut with a small thud.

Shino wasn't _pretending_ to court her.

He was playing for keeps.

(o)

A/N: Other uses for Melissa Officinalis: used to treat indigestion, lung congestion, high blood pressure and menstrual problems. All information regarding the use of the medicinal plants and herbs from this fic are true. Enjoy and thanks for reading everyone!

Jaggedjacket


	13. Chapter 13

The scuffle in the hallway quickly pulled the two shinobi's attention from their discussion. Tenten placed the book on the desk and traded it out for her scrolls as Gai gave her a silent nod, taking up an attack position from behind the door.

The voices were louder than they had anticipated for any kind of attack, and Gai raised one of his bushy eyebrows in response to such nonsense as they listened in on the conversation.

"You are a pushy bastard." The sound of a familiar voice etched with distain and contempt to the other person ground out harshly. The other person spoke so lowly that Gai and Tenten were not able to hear anything but an indistinguishable muffle from behind the door and down the hall where the two palavered.

"No, I _don't_ think I can control the volume of my voice right now because _I am tired_," he reiterated harshly, "and like I said before,_ this_ can wait until morning." Kiba's voice was reaching new levels of irritation and his voice increased accordingly as he and the other person approached Tenten's living quarters.

Tenten had a sneaking suspicion that it was Shino that he was conversing with now outside her door. She could sense his familiar chakra signature beside Kiba's and Akamaru's, and Tenten could feel her heart beat faster in her chest at the thought of seeing Shino so soon after she had found out his true intentions for her. Gai had picked up on her distress; she could tell by his body language and the way he gave her a look that she could only assume was paternal and protective in nature. She tried to give him a reassuring look back, but must have failed miserably. Gai simply slipped out the door with his one pointer finger over his lips telling her to be quiet about the matter.

A short click later and they were all speaking in low whispers that Tenten frowned at not being able to distinguish from behind the closed door, especially since they all were all standing directly outside _her_ door and doing it specifically so that_ she_ was unable to hear. It was all aggravating, and she was about to open the door and give them all her best death glare when a small knock interrupted her thoughts and Kiba humbly asked if he could come in.

She opened the door to the shinobi, noting that Gai and Shino had made a clean getaway. Akamaru had traipsed through the door first, and was bound and determined to kill her with affection. She nearly tripped as the dog used his massive weight to lean in against her while she ruffled his fur with equal affection.

She was aware that she couldn't contain her smile as the dog nuzzled and licked everywhere without hesitation. Tenten had forgotten how much she adored the animal, finally letting the dog overpower her into sitting on the floor with him occupying the entirety of her lap. She let her smile linger on her face as she methodically pet the large black and white animal, until he was content to just lay his massive head down so that she could gently stroke the fir between his eyes and over his head. The act was completely cathartic as she let the soft fur run against her palm and bunch underneath her fingers. It was only after a long moment of complete silence that she was painfully aware that Kiba was staring at her.

Kiba was still standing by the door, barely inside her room enough to have closed it behind him. He hadn't bothered to address her yet, and he looked worn and tired from whatever mission he inevitably had just returned from. She could smell campfire in Akamaru's fur as she pet him. Out of the corner of eye, she could make out that Kiba looked worse for wear. No wonder he was fighting to let whatever reason Shino wanted him to see her wait until the morning. Kiba looked exhausted, wanting nothing more than a shower and good night's rest.

He stood there, in his flack jacket, his normal hazel eyes unnervingly serious, so casual and yet so deadly at the same time. In truth, if Tenten weren't so into Shino, the shinobi standing over her watching her pet his nin-dog would have been a close second. Kiba had a rugged edge and a feral side that definitely appealed to Tenten's desire for a wild relationship. But in the end, there was some intrinsic quality about Shino that Tenten couldn't quite put her finger on that she always desired more. She was drawn to Shino, but it was more than just the mystery behind the quite solitude and quirky mannerisms. It was like he understood her, or a part of her soul was somehow caught up with his and was constantly trying to find itself.

No, that sounded silly and romantic.

Still there _was_ something about the Aburame that she found more attractive than any other male. Perhaps it was the gravity of his countenance or his unnatural talent for remaining calm when normal people would be panicking and running for daylight. Perhaps she did prefer his broad shoulders and tall frame over other shinobi males, even if he wasn't the tallest in his age group. Something attracted her to him, for whatever reason, and the very handsome male shinobi in front of her made her realize how he paled slightly in comparison to Shino.

Kiba's undivided attention on her suddenly made her a little nervous, and she looked up from her ministrations of putting Kiba's nin-dog to sleep only to be met with his pervading glare. A serious Kiba staring at you seemed a formidable opponent. The normally light-hearted Inuzuka wasn't prone to such gravity, and Tenten found herself breaking off the eye contact and refocusing her attention back on Akamaru to avoid the uncomfortable feeling.

"Sorry to bother you." Kiba's voice was laced with indignation for Shino, but sincere enough to be truly apologetic for his actions. Almost hesitant to do so, he stepped forward. Tenten couldn't think of anything on the earth that could make Kiba be hesitant to get closer to her; they were friends after all. Tenten was suddenly more self conscious than she had ever been in her whole life. She knew about the super sensitivity of the Inuzuka olfactory glands, how even exceedingly delicate bouquets could be picked up from their canine-like sense of smell. Did she smell offensive to Kiba? Akamaru didn't seem to mind, and if he did, he sure as hell was hiding it in return for lazy scratches behind his ears. "Apparently this couldn't wait until morning."

"Is something wrong?" Tenten asked with a straightening of her shoulders and a quick glance around the room. Something told her to heighten her shinobi senses and check for anything amiss in the surrounding vicinity. Even if the tired nin-dog would be able to smell trouble from a mile away, that somehow didn't keep her from going on full alert.

"Besides Shino being an insistent prick about this, everything is fine," Kiba drawled and finally sat down beside her, reaching out and petting the white tuffs of Akamaru's hide. She could make out more campfire scent with Kiba's proximity, the smell of a long day's journey emanating from his clothes and skin. Long moments passed on, the two shinobi just lounging and enjoying each other's company in silence, the only sound Akamaru's occasional whine when one of them stopped petting him.

Kiba eventually leaned back on his palms and regarded her with the same haunting look simmering in his eyes as before. "Shino is pretty worried about you. That bastard wouldn't even let me shower before coming straight over to see you."

"Just what is it that couldn't wait?" Tenten turned to fully face the cryptic shinobi, pinning him with an equally pensive glare, unable to wait any longer for an answer.

He broke eye contact and started to pet Akamaru once again, and began to casually speak, as if it weren't even related to why he had even come over in the first place. "Shino tells me that he put some Melissa oil on you, and that he gave you a whole set of bath soaps. You using them?" His head quirked to the side to look at her after asking the question.

"I would think that you would be able to smell that yes, I have, from where you are sitting." Tenten countered with an eyebrow raise. Kiba broke into a toothy grin in response.

"Atta girl," Kiba ruffled Akamaru's fur fervently in response, "You always were a smart one." Then he turned to look at her seriously again, the feral, playful look driven out of his eyes instantly as he let go of his dog's fur to give her his undivided attention once again.

"So you tell _me_ why I'm here." His eye brow rose slightly as he sat stock still until she spoke.

"You came here to _smell_ me?" Tenten was appalled at the thought that something so trivial couldn't wait until morning. She supposed all those new smells Shino gave her would mix with the chemistry of her body and alter her existing scent. Shino wanted Kiba to get a descent smell in case something happened to her tonight, as he was the only one of their group to track in that fashion.

"Bingo."

"Wait, can't you smell me from here?" The apprehension was mounting in her voice. Kiba gave a casual shrug of his thick shoulders.

"Not the same as sticking my nose in and making sure I have locked in on the scent. Shino is very adamant that I do it tonight." He paused. "You ready?"

No. "Yes."

He leaned in slowly, taking in a full measure of how apprehensive she was with his eyes as they darted back and forth between hers as he made his way closer. Tenten couldn't help but note the subtle predatory look in his eyes and she timorously cowered from his advance.

"Ten, I'm not going to hurt you," he said this quietly as if he had taken offence that she might even think that he would do her any harm.

She gave a small nod before closing her eyes tightly as he pressed his body against hers, wrapping a hand around the nape of her neck to bring her in closer yet. His touch was surprisingly gentle. She followed the lead of his hand and leaned to the side for him to bring his face closer to her neck. She felt his body heat and the bulk of his flack jacket as he pressed as little against her as possible. With an exaggerated inhale, he brushed his nose from the edge of her collar bone all the way up to her ear, letting the tip of his nose trail the soft delicate flesh as he performed the action in one fluid, long motion. Letting out a shaky breath, he nearly growled a heavy, "damn," before replacing his hand with the other and gripping her opposite shoulder with the other to smell the opposite side of her neck.

Tenten was fully aware that she could smell him as well. His was a deep masculine scent, a long journey of dirt weathered on his clothes and skin. As alluring as the male scent was to her, it still didn't compare to the heady aroma of the Aburame. She found herself suddenly longing for a whiff of Shino while in the presence of the Inuzuka.

This time Kiba seemed to be more comfortable with pressing his body as tightly as he dared against hers as he fisted his hand in the back of her head and pulled her hair gently in the swift motion. He took another exaggerated breath and trailed his nose against her a second time, following the same pattern of starting at the base of her neck and working upwards. With a flick of his tongue, he licked the part of her neck at the junction of her ear, causing her to open her eyes that had been tightly shut the entire time.

"Hey!" Tenten felt her hands push against his chest to put some distance between them. Kiba responded with an unapologetic hazy look of not caring that he got caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

"Just being thorough," he stated showing off a long canine with a crooked grin as he pulled back. Somehow he was hovering over her, with that smug look on his face, and it occurred to her that he must have leaned her backwards during the whole process. That look was in his eyes, that look that stated that if it weren't Shino, if it had been anyone else interested in her, Kiba _wouldn't_ have backed off. He lingered above her, ready to move, but not before getting one last serious comment in.

"If Shino gets stupid and fucks it up…" The rest was implied. Tenten understood.

"After I get done beating his ass, I will give yours a call." She smiled at him. She meant it. He got off of her, huffing out a low grunt of satisfaction at her response.

Akamaru got up from his spot beside her on the floor and followed his master out.

"I'm going to leave before I do something stupid," he remarked seriously before opening the door to leave.

"Good night, Kiba," she called to him, "Good night, Akamaru."

"Good night, Tenten." He nodded before closing the door.

(o)

A/N: I couldn't resist putting in a little KibaTen. I hope you all enjoyed it. Thank you again to all who reviewed. Your encouragement means a lot to me!

Cheers!

Jaggedjacket


	14. Chapter 14

Tenten tried to concentrate on Shinju's words as she knelt in a row of marigolds and admired a golden flower by brushing a finger gently across its feather-soft petals. Her mind was still lingering on the site that she had beheld on the other hill top as her tour guide led them through a whole crop of Hypericum perforatum_**, **_more commonly known as St. John's Wort, just in the peak of its delicate yellow blossoms. Her guide and bodyguard had gone on about how they were used for more than just flavoring for udon noodles, that the flowing tops were used in poultices to heal wounds, but Tenten had been more interested in the Aburame that was visible from her vantage point to really pay too close of attention.

Shino's hands were outstretched and directing hundreds of thousands of bugs to pollinate one of the arnica crops. The small black kakkai were buzzing in and out of the persimmon colored flower tops, all with consummate precision. The whole of the field looked like a massive black wave had descended upon it, Shino at the center of all of the organized ripples as the beetles spilled in and out of flowers in a liquid dance. His sinewy arms hung in the air, hands tense in concentration as he orchestrated them all to bend to his will. The muscles in his chest flexed and relaxed in conjunction to his flux in chakra, and the only way that Tenten could tell that was because Shino was _shirtless_. His face showed equal amounts of distress from the burdening jutsu; his jaw tensed just as the rest of his muscled form did as he directed one wave after another with his powerful arms extended out in front of him. His body glistened with sweat from the strain the whole of the jutsu presented on him, but he kept a steady breath as he performed the motions with the afternoon sun highlighting his skin as it hung low in the sky behind him.

Tenten watched him with a reverent moment of silence while she knelt to inspect the St. John's Wort plants. She had nearly blushed at Shinju's stare at her as she gaped at the half naked man in the adjacent field.

She had never seen Shino with his shirt off before, and she suddenly wanted to rake her hands over the taut muscles of his chest like she had done that one night in the hotel room on that mission that seemed like a lifetime ago.

It was generally nice to see Shino unclothed, but the stress on his body from the strain of what he was doing caused a pang of alarm to course through Tenten after getting over the initial nice-view factor.

Now, as she left the marigold fields, also known for using their flowers for medicinal purposes, she had to wonder if Shino was going to be okay. Not that her mind wasn't constantly distracted by the shirtless and sexy Shino engraved in her brain too, but the fact that his job to help the farmers pollinate their fields seemed much too strenuous on his body.

And she rather liked his body, and would prefer it to stay intact for as long as possible.

As she let her bodyguard-turned-friend lead them out of the marigold gardens, she wondered how painfully low his chakra levels must be after completing all of the pollination allotted for one day.

This had only been the first day.

The next day they were to go to the kite flying festival in town, but she wondered again if he was even going to be able to lift a chopstick to eat his meal that evening, let alone recuperate enough to endure a fun-filled date with her the following evening.

She had to do something about that.

As soon as her tour was over, she was able to talk her guards and her sensei into letting her spend some time with Hinata before dinner.

Hinata had just showered after a sparring session with her cousin, and was still sporting a fluffy white robe while combing her raven-black hair when Tenten was allowed to enter. The girl instantly brightened upon her arrival. She dropped the comb on her bed and embraced her with a euphoric smile.

"Security is so tight around here; I thought they would never let me see you!" Hinata rushed as she broke off the hug. Shifting her head to the side, she suddenly furrowed her brows and stared at Tenten's midsection.

Pulling out the hard-covered book she smuggled inside from underneath her shirt, Tenten gave a confident smile.

"I think I found a way to help Shino."

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Tenten let out a frustrated grunt of distress and slammed the book closed with a solid thud of its covers.

"I give up," She stated again with conviction, "I really thought this was the answer to solving Shino's problem of not having his bugs eat me for a meal, and that I could share some chakra without any backlash of being weak from it, but no." Tenten got up from her spot on the floor where they had been practicing the all-but-forgotten technique in one of the many ancient volumes of texts Tenten found in the town's library.

Hinata shifted the book towards her, and opened the musty volume, flipping to the correct pages to check the jutsu once again. Tenten continued to pace in a circle, pulling the short tuffs of her hair on the nape of her neck by twirling them around her finger and giving a firm pull to help staunch the rush of frustration over not being able to learn the new jutsu. Hinata only sat quietly for few brief moments before giving the book a quarter turn on the floor and craning her neck to read some of the more miniscule handwriting.

"There is a picture with a caption that I can't make out," Hinata muttered with concentration, shifting the book anther quarter turn. "I think that it relates to the jutsu you want to use on Shino." Her voice was barely enough to move her bangs from around her face as she spoke.

Tenten knelt beside her and narrowed her eyes to try and read the scratchy text. The picture showed two people, much like hieroglyphics, facing each other with their partner's hands over different parts of their body. It looked like the two were trying to embrace each other awkwardly, and Tenten had to wonder if it was some kind of erotic dance perhaps, and the picture had been misplaced on the page.

Did Shino know how to dance? Her thought was interrupted when Hinata started to speak.

"_Beware the connection glow, by hands that fields sow_." Tenten couldn't help but interrupt with shocked response, and she peered closer beside Hinata in disbelief.

"It rhymes? Seriously?" Tenten stated incredulously. Hinata only shrugged her shoulders before continuing by holding up the book and turning it accordingly to read the last sentence.

"_Do not make, this bond in haste, your touch will make it flow_."

There was a moment's silence that followed the cryptic poem, then it gave way to staring at each other owlishly and blinking suddenly before returning their attention back at the book in Hinata's hand.

"Do you know what that means?" Hinata's quiet voice broke the calm.

"Yeah," Tenten pointed back to the book to reference the tiny handwriting, "Aburame's don't exactly know how to write decent poetry. _Haste_ and _make_ hardly rhyme."

"Tenten!" Hinata's small voice broke out in a near squeak.

"Okay, slant rhyme _maybe_." Tenten acceded. Hinata continued to glare at her, mouth opened and horrified that such a comment had come out of her friend.

"Hinata, I'm kidding. Stop having an aneurism." Tenten pointed at the one picture, dropping the humor to appease her friend, "In order to practice, I think it just means that we have to touch each other." Tenten furrowed her brows again at the almost indecent picture of what she hoped was a male and female performing the jutsu.

"Maybe if you slide your leg here, and I put my hand here…" Tenten slipped her hand on the other girls shoulder.

"No, you have put them over the torso, here on my chest. I think that was why it didn't work before. The closer to the main chakra points the better or it won't transfer correctly." Hinata glanced at the book again before placing her hands over Tenten's chest. Then suddenly Hinata removed her hands to undo the toggles on Tenten's shirt.

Tenten looked down from where Hinata's tiny hands were working the wooden buttons back to Hinata's face, a bit surprised that the normally shy heiress would be so bold and not hesitant to perform such a task.

Hinata blushed furiously at Tenten's sudden awareness, and tried to slide her hands into her lap as if they had gotten scorched by fire, suddenly aware at how inappropriate it was to undress her without her consent. Tenten grabbed a delicate wrist and stated firmly but gently, "No, we do this right, Hinata. Shino's life is at stake, this is no time to be shy about this."

With a renewed sense of determination, she gave a quick head nod of approval, and quickly finished undoing Tenten's shirt, and then unzipped the jacket she was currently wearing and tossed it casually aside.

l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.

Kiba rushed inside Hinata's room after sensing the chakra flare from the closest position to her room on the same floor. Kunai in hand and Akamaru bounding in behind him, Kiba nearly broke the door off of its hinges just to get to the two girls inside. His intrusion inside Hinata's room gave way to a sudden halt once he saw the two girls on the floor with their hands on each other's chest and sitting almost in each other's lap. Tenten slowly took her hands off of the younger girl and stared in amazement at her own hands glowing almost as bright a blue as the girl in front of her.

Hinata radiated chakra from her aura, so much so that Tenten doubted any ninja could be able to mask it, despite how good they were at cloaking any chakra signature.

"You did it, Tenten!" Hinata beamed at her with praise. The air cracked and hissed with the sound of the blue chakra forming all around her. The presence of her chakra was almost overwhelming, and Tenten had a feeling that it would have been if Hinata had been upset in any way.

Tenten sat back on her heels and casually looked at the book then back at her hands and then to Hinata.

"Hinata, you are a genius! This never would have worked if you hadn't helped me!" Tenten leaned over and gave the glowing girl and firm hug of appreciation. Upon their separation from the hug was when they noticed the Inuzuka in the door frame, openly gapping at them. During the trial and error of attempting to perform the jutsu, the girls had decided that the less clothes and more contact, the better the results. Tenten and Hinata were down to their skivvies when Kiba barged in.

A blushing red Hinata realized it at the same time as a flustered Tenten, and they both dived for some discarded clothes on the floor to cover themselves up. Kiba only continued to stare and doge an occasional object hurtling towards him that was followed an obscenity accompanied with orders to leave.

Akamaru whined beside him, clearly concerned for his master's safety if he weren't to make a hasty exit soon. Tenten was lunging for a kunai pouch when the large dog took matters into his own mouth and yanked the Inuzuka out the door by the back of his shirt. Three kunais imbedded the hallway wall behind Kiba, one after another, right before Hinata slammed her door shut, snapping the dumbfounded Kiba out of his trance. Akamaru's swift movements to get his master out of danger proved effective enough to save him from his little voyeuristic moment of shock.

However much Akamaru could drag him out of trouble physically, he was unable to save him from his master's big mouth.

"My nose bleed aside," he yelled through the door, "Are _you two_ okay?" His sincere concern was limited for a moment before he continued on, "Because I would be more than willing to help with _whatever_ you two were working on in there."

Tenten regarded Hinata, who equated to what she interpreted as a roll of her colorless eyes at the door where Kiba stood behind still talking to them. She was pretty sure she heard him mumble something to his dog about not being able to walk straight for a week. Hinata let out an exasperated sigh right before scratching the bridge of her nose and blushing just a bit.

"I'd better go," Tenten hugged the book to her chest as she smiled at Hinata with gratitude. "Thanks again for helping me." They heard him mentioning something about _just watching_ through the door. "I will be sure to get rid of him for you on my way out."

"Thanks," Hinata stated with a smile.

.i.i.i.i.i.i.i.i.i.i.i.i.i.i.i.i.i.i.i.i.i.i.i.i.i.

A/N: Moving sucks. Just saying. Everyone pray that this move goes well! I am at max stress levels and could use a litany or 12 to help me out. I wanted to post this in case someone smashes my laptop to smithereens on the way out of state. I think I will throw an adult temper tantrum when it is all finished. Or maybe now. Now sounds good too. Where is the liquor…

Cheers everyone and thanks for the reviews!

Jaggedjacket


	15. Chapter 15

She could feel the eyes watching her like she could feel the rise and fall of her own hitched breath as she made her way across the fields with Shino by her side. Gai was with her escorts this time, standing so close to one of her bodyguards it might possibly be considered improper.  
>That thought made her smile, but the cold, hard, discerning glare that her master was sweeping across the landscape brought her right back to her fears again. Gai's hands unconsciously clenched and unclenched at his sides. She knew that was a bad sign. Her master was worried. She knew he had every reason to be.<p>

_They_ were watching.

Watching. Waiting.

She could feel their impatience like the lump in her throat.

Shino's presence was only mildly comforting. The way the man looked relaxed almost irritated her. Surely he could sense the impending doom hovering above them all as they descended into the valley for the kite festival. Neji and Lee were somewhere along the hills with Kiba and Hinata and their red-eyed master. Even with all of the precautions, she didn't feel safe. She felt raw and exposed and helpless.

They were watching, and she knew it was only a matter of time before they took her. She knew they were looking for more than just and simple, on-the-spot kill. That would be too easy. They were going to manipulate Shino and his father with her absence. She caught glimpses of the older Aburame slipping in and out of the crowd every now and again. That should have comforted her to know that Shibi was so close. Somehow, it all seemed futile.

Shino's smooth voice cut through her thoughts. "Which color kite would you prefer? It looks like you have your pick of animals as well. The town has really outdone themselves this year." His casual comments, mere small talk, were only offered as a means to distract her from her initial fears. Even though she knew that, she had to admit it was working. Everything about the man at her side screamed nonchalant. His apathy was enough to piss her off, even as she wished she could be as easy going about her impending doom as he was. "I hope Kiba is feeling better today," he stated offhandedly. "I noticed him walking around with a limp this morning."

Tenten smiled and tried to stifle her laughter, but a few uncontrolled giggles managed to escape anyways. Shino's eyebrows shot up as he looked expectantly at her, waiting for her to clue him in on the private joke.

"I call that a self-fulfilling prophecy. Hinata got tired of him muttering about walking funny so she finally gave him a real reason to complain."

Shino thought about this for a moment. "Do I even want to know what he did to procure her wrath?"

"He's already got one limp, and Hinata was quite unforgiving about it." She reasoned as she shook her head no. "Plus we still need him for this mission." Shino seemed to go ridged beside her, probably mulling over what Kiba could have done to upset his normally shy teammate. He was also possibly thinking about his own personal braid of pay-backs to said teammate if he did eventually find out just what had transpired the night before. He soon went back to relaxing and keeping his steady pace into the open fields filled with loud noises, venders and villagers alike.

One brazen little girl from the crowd wrapped her tiny arms around one of Tenten's leg in a quick embrace, all but knocking Tenten over in her already constrictive outfit in the process. Tenten's hand instinctively went to the child's head to pat it, but the girl had let go as soon as her hand tousled her pig tails and she streaked over to Shino's leg with the same quick greeting. Shino scooped her up in his arms like she weighed nothing, a crooked smile on his face.

"Are you enjoying the festival?" he asked the tot as she smiled with wide, clear eyes. "Kura-chan, what are you covered with?" His tone was curious and almost playfully berating as he looked over her outfit to assess how much of the unknown substance she was caked with. Tenten hadn't noticed how muddied the child was in his arms. A thick slime of caramel goo seemed to saturate her clothes and arms. Kura was now not half as covered as the Aburame beside her; Kura had managed to transfer most of the goop onto him in a matter of seconds after Shino had picked her up. Those beautiful robes he wore might possibly be completely ruined now. She smiled despite the unfortunate outcome of his attire. She was impressed that he knew her by name and that the toddler was so comfortable in coming up to him, letting him carry her like he had done it a thousand times before. It was quite possible he had. She really did like the way that those colors layered against Shino's skin, even when dirty, giving him a strong masculine appeal as the collars lined the edge of his jaw neatly, making it more pronounced. She liked the small child in his arms more, and the fact that he was now filthy on his date with her. There was as strange sense of satisfaction that the normally well groomed and immaculate Aburame was now caked in filth.

Then the breeze caught, shifting the air a bit and her nose automatically wrinkled. The acrid smell was hard to miss for someone like her.

Tenten was mostly known for her abilities with weapons: the prolific amounts of them as well as their wide varieties. Not many people knew she had a long and arduous love affair with explosives,too, however. Her knowledge and expertise in that area would put the former Akasuki member Deidara to shame. Gai had let her practice with them, at first, but insisted that she do her training alone farther outside of Konoha in a secluded area of the nearby mountains after a nearly fatal accident on the training grounds. Tenten nodded silently at her sensei that day instead of arguing, sensing more than just a close call in his beady, dark eyes. The loss she saw in there caught her breath, and she knew there was no way that Gai would be comfortable around her studies in this particular area with ghosts from his past still haunting him. She decided to take some vacations out where he suggested when the urge to test new and deadly accelerators was too much for her curiosity and she just had to play with her new weapons of mass destruction. Gai's relief when she came back whole always made her feel guilty for leaving in the first place. She had a feeling that he would check up on her if there wasn't a good chance that he would return home with a few less limbs than when he had left. And if the fact that demo tags and explosives didn't somehow unnerved her sensei when she used them in sparing against her teammates, Tenten would be an unstoppable force of nature and hell combined in a neat kunoichi package.

Tenten hadn't noticed the sprig of lavender Kura had shoved in Shino's face as if asking for approval, clenched in her tiny fist. After a nod of encouragement she held the purpled flower plant out to Tenten with a smile. "I picked this for you. It's pretty like you are." Tenten tried to smile graciously, but the horror of what the child had fallen into still wracked against the pit of her stomach before traveling up her spine with gripping terror.

Kura was covered in a combination of explosive gels and accelerators made mostly from an exotic tree sap found in the Philippines. Tenten herself had concocted a similar substance when she had first begun to flirt with the idea of highly flammable and explosive materials. In the end the smell was what warranted a far safer and less disgusting means to an end.

_Unless you hid the smell in a lavender field to cover up the stench._

They were going to blow up half the country side trying to get to her.

In truth it was a brilliant distraction. The smell alone would virtually disable the Inuzuka from tracking her. Mass chaos and mayhem. Villagers everywhere to protect. Her troupe was certain to get caught helping the innocent bystanders. No one would notice her absence until it was too late.

The horrific look on her face as her eyes widened at the thought of little Kura still covered in the explosive gel…all over her…all over Shino…

She didn't have time to think if someone had set it up that way. She didn't want to think that someone would intentionally put explosives on a young girl just to get to Shino…

"That's not mud, Shino," was all she could manage to say. Shino saw the look of desperation in her eyes, then rolled the goo on the pads between two fingers suspiciously. If she could have seen his eyes, she would have bet they would have narrowed. His jaw clenched, he wipped it off on his sleeve, then turned to Kura like nothing was the matter at all.

"Let's get you cleaned up Kura-chan," he put her down and quickly began to take off her outer robe.

"Don't tell Mama I got dirty," the child pleaded with Shino as he inspected her over to make sure that her hands were clean of the messy brown tar.

He didn't have a chance to tell her anything. The explosion shook the ground beneath them as it rained dirt and debris all around them.

Chaos and mayhem, just as Tenten had predicted, but all too late.

The crowd around her was screaming, panicked and desperate to find shelter from the downpour of earth. Parents shouted for missing children as abandoned children wept in the confusion, tears streaming down painted faces now muddied from the shrapnel falling from the sky. Bodies rushed against her, desperate and groping for some kind of shelter or safety. It was a herd mentality to just move away from the loud thundering echoes as the turmoil ensued.

Her thoughts were on Kura and on keeping her safe so that no one trampled her. Shino was already covering her with his body, acting like a shield while everything swirled around them in the cloud of dust and noise.

Bodies pressed against her, villagers moving, without much direction, trying to escape the valley, the death trap of the field, before it permanently became their grave. Desperation hung in the air like a blanket while the alluvial rain continued to bombard them as more explosions detonated not far from where they were. Her body had been twisted, turning and disorienting her as more people pressed and rushed by her, making everyone and everything unrecognizable.

She had lost Shino.

She couldn't find her sensei.

Her body guards were nowhere in sight.

She could smell the burning now. The caustic scent of the lavender fields ablaze had finally hit her nose full force.

She searched with squinting eyes through the smoke, keeping her head low to the ground as she clutched with desperation at the clumps of grass as the earth trembled again from another raucous boom. The ground was shaking so badly she was sure that if she hadn't been holding on to it as tightly as she had, she would have fallen off the face of the earth.

There was more screaming as the people around her shoved into her, trying to make their escape. She could smell their fear as clear as her own.

_This was worse than the war had been_, she thought in a brief moment before closing her eyes, cursing her limited wardrobe, and slowly letting go of the thick blades of grass between her fingers.

Tenten tried to steady herself on her feet, but was soon lifted off of them altogether. Her hands immediately tried to pry the one hand that had grabbed her around her throat to dislodge it from it's vice grip. Her meager efforts to struggle seemed futile as her feet dangled, wanting nothing more than to be on the ground, no matter how unsteady it was a the moment.

The man who held her up by the one hand was ugly and smelled worse than the tar goo explosive. There was a thin line of a scar above his right eye leading down to the lid after bisecting a thick eyebrow. An irrational thought floated through her head from lack of oxygen that Lee's fuzzy eyebrows were much better looking than this tool's. She would be sure to tell him that if she survived this. _If_ she survived this. She tried to force air into her lungs, but his wooden grip didn't budge. _It was probably better that she couldn't breathe_, another irrational thought crossed her mind, _he smelled terrible anyways_.

The man grinned at his new prize, revealing a few gaping holes in his yellow smile. He looked like he had just won the lottery. He looked at Tenten as if she were the prize.

So this was Yoshin Nami.

A/N: I wrote this today. As in all of it, today. I hope I edited this enough before posting. My apologies if it needs more.

I thought the limp part was hilarious. I hope I got a good chuckle out of some one…

Happy Halloween everybody!


	16. Chapter 16

She opened her eyes. At least she thought she had. Everything remained dark, an endless void of black and cold. A brief memory of jumping into an icy river when she was a genin crossed her mind. She remembered that she hadn't felt so cold in all her life. What she felt like now wasn't quite as frigid as when she had jumped into that freezing river, but it was close. If she had been wet, she would have thought that she had dropped into the sub-arctic waters yet again. The ground beneath her was hard and frozen. How long had she been laying here in this frigid temperature in the dark?

She stirred reluctantly, her throat burned, and upon trying to rise she realized that she had several broken ribs and bruises everywhere; it hurt to breathe. She was certain as she put weight on her left wrist, that it had been shattered at the distal end of shaft of both the ulna and radius. The more inventory of her body she took, the more broken bones and gashes she found. She stopped her evaluation for the moment and tried to figure out why there was no light, and if she could move enough to get out of where ever the hell she was located at the moment.

Her right hand went up to the side of her face suddenly, disobedient of her orders not to find more injuries. The dripping blood that ran down her cheek itched as part of it had crusted over or froze, and three broken fingers on her right hand tried to swipe at the mess in order to alleviate some of the discomfort from the clotted mass that formed over her swollen face. She hissed at the stab of pain from both ends, and groaned as her tongue left her blood soaked mouth to lick the swollen part of her open, split lip. She tried to recall when she had been beaten up this badly…nothing came to mind.

Their assignment had gone to hell rather quickly, and she feared the worst for the villagers, for Shino, for everyone that accompanied them for this whole damn death trap of a mission. She failed to mention herself in all of this. She'd most likely hemorrhage to death before she was able to move out from her mysterious dark freezer. The fractured ribs most likely punctured vital organs.

Scooting with as much of her energy as she could manage, she shuffled across the cold earth until she bumped into a wall. With her right hand she fingered the smooth parts of the surface and the jagged sharp edges that suddenly bounded up to peak beneath it.

She was willing to bet money that she had been buried alive in a cave.

How wonderful for her to be left for dead in such a fashion as not to be able to see anything in order to get herself out of this mess.

But she was a well-prepared kunoichi of the leaf and not without her wiles.

She pulled a furled tag from her right bun, the one she could most easily access. She had more than enough blood to ignite the tag, letting the slow burning of the parchment glow brightly after a few quick and painful hand seals. The parchment crackled under her fingers, and she had to turn away for a few seconds to let her eyes adjust to the intensity of the light. The cave was long and narrow; she could tell where the outside mouth had been closed up expertly with a jutsu perfected by Rock nins. Anyone on the outside wouldn't be able to tell that it had once been the opening of the mouth of a cave. The jutsu was designed to make it look like it was a contiguous part of the mountain without so much as a seam to distinguish the two separate parts. Luckily Tenten had come in contact with this exact jutsu on a mission with Team Gai, and she remembered the thin hair-like outline on the igneous rock structure on its opposite side just as delicate and fine as this delineation. This was exactly where the opening of the cave had been.

She turned her attention to the rest of the cave, opening her eyes wider as she tried to see down its narrow tunnel with swollen lids that threatened to ensconce her eyes completely. A dark lump that resembled a body had been dumped unceremoniously at the back of the cave. She nearly dropped the light tag in shock.

She worked quickly, knowing the limits of her body and recognized the prudence of conserving time going back and forth from the opening of the mouth of the cave and back to the hopefully still alive person. The slump of a human looked too big to be the young girl that Shino had been holding moments before all hell broke loose. She shed her outer robe and placed it at the mouth of the cave with a time-delayed explosive tag she carefully uncoiled from her left bun.

Slowly, painfully, she called Shino's name, fearing the worst as she scooted frantically towards him. His name echoed against the still walls of the cave, recalling again and again his name as it fell softer and softer until she was almost certain that his name in her ears was her only companion. Her fingers ached as they clawed her broken body over the cold floor. Her chest tightened and constricted all of the air flow going in and out as panic gripped her.

_He had to be alive. He just had to be._

She didn't even bother with checking for a pulse when she finally reached him. Flashes of memories from where they held her down and hit her while Shino screamed only a few feet away, chained and unable to stop them, came to the forefront of her brain as she ran her hands over the straight of his overcoat and fumbled with the toggles. The tag that had been lit was half way out at this point, casting a blue hazy glow over Shino's supine form. She had placed it away from them at a safe distance, careful to keep it away from the dangerous sap that caked their outer clothes. With any luck, that gooey mess would be able to save them both.

If he was alive. There was no trace of his destructions bugs anywhere near him. She tried not to think of what that meant and quelled her panic by keeping her head on the task at hand.

She slipped his meaty arms out from his coat, noting his perfectly preserved form. They hadn't bothered with physically torturing him. His torture came in the form of his captors mercilessly using her as their personal punching bag while he watched. His screams echoed in the back of her mind as she gently cradled his head with her palms to put his head back down on the cave floor after successfully removing his mottled out coat. That was when she noticed the blood. Of course they _had_ to knock him on conscious with a blunt weapon. She cursed herself for not being able to detect his head wound earlier, not that she really could have. Taking his outer robe off had to remain first priority, treating his wounds second.

She expertly threw his coat over to hers at the opposite side of the cave and promptly began a frantic disrobing of herself and Shino. She cursed at random things as she struggled with buttons and armholes. While she rather like the idea of getting next to naked with Shino, she would rather have done it under much different circumstances. First off, she did not want to look like Frankenstein's organ-donor beforehand. Secondish, she would prefer that Shino was at least awake and not on the verge of death or dead already. Nextly, she would like there to be far less blood. And at least a blanket…she was so cold. And the ability to count better…

Her brain was on the cusp of losing too much blood to be able to think coherently anymore. She definitely felt her heart skip a beat when she had finished her task of removing most of their clothes as she let her fractured hand run along Shino's sternum, relishing in the smooth feel of his skin. They may have pounded the snot out of her, but at least it hadn't had any permanent damage on her hormones. She cursed again for not being able to fully appreciate the whole of what she was about to do as she crawled on top of him. She didn't dare move to adjust for the uncomfortable way her right side screamed at her to get the building pressure off of her broken ribs. The brushing of his skin against hers was enough to not to ruin the position with petty things like an unwanted rib in her spleen.

She drank in his perfect features in the low lighting. So close to him, she was able to indulge with more scrutiny his Adonis face without blushing or feeling rude. She loved his ruffled, disheveled hair. She imagined he woke up with it sticking up in ridiculous, yet oddly sexy ways every morning. She wove her unbroken fingers lightly through his mangled locks. His hair had been far softer than she imagined. Even if there had been proper lighting, she wouldn't have wanted to see his eyes. Their captors had graciously allowed him the luxury of keeping his goggles. She would wait and be patient for him to take them off for her. Cheating at this point was still cheating. She wished that she could live long enough for him to expose that part of himself willingly to her. She ran her finger along his nose, straight, she noted, just as perfect and regal as the rest of him. She steadied herself, pressing the side of her face to Shino's perfectly in-tact cheek, noticing the slight stubble on the bottom edge. His full lips had tempted her to steal a taste of him one last time, but she settled for breathing in a final smell of his neck, inhaling that familiar cypress-type aroma directly from the crook of his neck. For some reason, the feel of his stubble on the side of her cheek and the strange intimacy that she was sharing with him made her smile. She wouldn't want to go out any other way.

She did fantasize about what it would be like to actually be with him. Shinobi relationships remained to this day particularly precarious to keep despite the war being over. Missions would remain forever dangerous as their line of work demanded. They would worry themselves sick over each other every time one of them left on assignments such as this one. It was nice to think about how they could exist outside of the problems and frustrations of their jobs. Just be together, like how they were now, but NOT how they were now. She imagined a time when they could just lie next to each other, basking in the glow of the afternoon sun on a lawn chair on the veranda of the estates. Just the two of them lazily lounging in a lounge chair. The simple thought almost made her laugh. It seemed so preposterous now, the two of them ever making it far enough in their relationship to have cuddle time in a private setting.

She delved her fingers into his hair again, as if grounding herself to him, clinging to him and begging him to give her the strength to send him all of her life force. She prayed that he would forgive her and honor her sacrifice, and that the justu would work. Her last supplication was that her sensei not be the one to find her half-naked corpse on top of Shino's. Heaven knew Shino really would end up dead if that were to happen. She pondered on the afterlife briefly. If such things really existed.

She would settle for being reincarnated as one of his destruction bugs…at least that way, she would still be close to him.

She formed the seals correctly, welcoming the surge of chakra to Shino right before the bright light over took her.

(o)

A/N: This was a labor of love, people. I hope you all enjoyed. It took me FOREVER to rewrite and write and make this chapter long enough to post. I love reviews …and kombucha…and putting dots instead of commas in my writing.

I hope you enjoyed this.

^^jaggedjacket^^


	17. Chapter 17

Not everyone gets a second chance. Tenten was certainly reaching cat-life breaking records for being able to come back from the brink of death, or in this case actual death, and doing so in style no less. The comma lasted three days. Even that was touchy. The next week she was in and out of consciousness, trying to remember the faces of everyone that had visited her room in the past week.

Gai had brought her her favorite flowers from the valley. The soft petal pink orchids were a lovely sight to see on her bedside table. He even had sung her a lullaby to help her fall asleep, not that she needed any help in that department, something the man hadn't done since they were genin. Gai's soft baritone lulled her into a happy stupor as he brushed the bangs out of her eyes and sat by her bedside. Her master may be a little quirky, crazy even, but no one ever cared for her like Gai Sensei did. The man loved her like she was his own daughter and Tenten had to admit that he was the surrogate father she had always wanted. She felt the scrape of the stubble on his chin when he kissed her goodnight, and for some reason, it made her feel safe. She had pleasant dreams that evening. A cool breeze had caused the shutter of the window to creek open just a bit, but she remained cozy in her blankets while she slept, nestled in their warmth.

She didn't remember much of Lee and Neji when they had come to visit, just that they had and that they wished her well. Lee was nice enough to restrain himself from being too loud when all she could do was barely keep her eyes half open. The boys took turns reading parts of self-care manuals for specific weapons that she kept in her arsenal until she had finally succumb to inevitable sleep that overwhelmed her during her recovery.

She awoke to Hinata combing her hair one morning, eager to hear the account of how they found Shino and herself alive. Hinata managed to cover them up properly before either of their masters had seen how scandalous Tenten had stripped them down before performing the jutsu. She told her how Shino had started to rouse from consciousness as they had found her, and his reaction to what Tenten had done.

Tenten at this point of the story was still uncertain of just what exactly had happened. Hinata explained very cautiously, as she rhythmically stroked her hair with the brush, about the ramifications of the kakkai bugs when an Aburame dies. The bugs return to the original host, in this case it was Shino's father.

Tenten had nearly had a heart attack at Hinata's words. Hinata picked up on her distress and assured her that Shino was well, but he had not been around because of the complications that arose when dealing with the ownership of the destruction bugs. He and his father had been gone for nearly a week. They were assured that he was well, but the matter and secrecy of the destruction bugs had to be dealt with immediately.

Tenten thanked the pale-eyed girl profusely, not only for the inevitable healing that she had received when she had found her, but for the cover-up of the jutsu that she had performed as well. Hinata stopped combing through her long hair to tug on it playfully.

"You brought him back to us, Tenten," she whispered as Tenten's eyes finally gave in to more much needed sleep, "It is we who should be thanking you."

Kiba came to visit her late one evening. Tenten had enough energy to eat a full meal and bathe herself with the help of Shinju. Her attempt at running a comb through her own hair proved to be exhausting, so she let the wet, messy tangles dampen her pillow as sleep threatened to over whelm her once more. There in the glow of the soft light, the triangles on his face seemed almost black, but the seriousness in his eyes remained ever unwavering.

She could hear Akamaru panting by the door, keeping watch to make sure they had some privacy.

She reached out to his face, and he gently grabbed her wrist to lead it to his cheek, assuring her that he was real. He closed his eyes and melted into her touch, as if he enjoyed the contact as much as his dog loved being petted. Tenten couldn't help but think that he had been deprived of such contact, and that she was somehow filling in the gap of the kind of attention that the man before her deserved.

Had he been waiting for her to touch him? Was he still holding out hope that they would be together?

She found her free hand roaming through his hair. It was hard to tell whether her hand was going there on its own or if he was guiding her to the parts of his head he wanted touched.

"We lost you," he whispered so quietly Tenten thought for a moment she imagined it until he continued. "They were able to resuscitate you with CPR and some kind of medical jutsu. You lost so much blood…"

His eyes were looking down until now and he pinned her square in the eyes with a serious stare. His eyes beseeched her own, begging her for the words that she could not supply.

"Sorry." His eyes closed tightly, as if he were fighting with himself not to curse. He knew she was talking about their status. How even though she had died, on Shino's watch no less, she was still unwilling to let that come between the two.

"You died," he clipped out harshly, even though his voice remained low.

"So did he." Her hand found its way down his face as he closed his eyes once more as if trying to channel some inner composure. She found her fingertips by his lips and it looked as though he was fighting nuzzling into her touch once more. "Although I am still curious as to what it would be like to kiss someone with those fangs of yours," she smiled mischievously, and Kiba let out a huffed chuckle at her fascination and a light of gratitude flickered in his eyes.

"You can find out right now," he let mischief in his eyes dance while he raised a suggestive eyebrow. Tenten smiled as her eyes fell shut and her whole hand dropped as she succumbed to exhaustion once more. The Inuzuka tucked her in gently and pressed a kiss to her forehead. She could feel him nuzzle his nose into the crook of her neck one last time and inhale deeply, "Good night," he spoke his farewell, and then he left.

Shinju kept her in good health as one by one everyone from her team and team eight had to leave for other missions. She spotted Gai and Shinju down at the bottom of the hill holding each other affectionately from her bed when she found enough strength to sit up for a while. The way that he held her tenderly made her long for Shino, who had yet to be heard from. The only news reported was that he was alive, and still with his father and his destruction bugs until it was safe for him to return.

Tenten wasn't sure what that all meant. Shinju kept a good watch over her; helped her eat, bathe and dress. In a week's time she would be able to make the journey home to Konoha. Tenten didn't want to leave without Shino. She needed the reassurance that he was whole somehow, and that he missed her as much as she missed him.

She had meant to close the window that night. Tired and not even sure if she could cross the room to perform such a task, she inched her way closer to the snapping shutter, praying that her strength would hold and she could make it to her bed before she passed out again. Even with leaning on the wall for support she stumbled once before making it to the window. The wind had violently arrived, and she smelled the coming storm brew on the wisps of the chilled wind. Once the lightning struck she nearly fell over, but not necessarily from the wicked crackles of light that filled the open sky. A figure had landed on the window sill, perched with a graceful prowess as the night sky lit up behind the silhouette.

Completely unprepared, she fell backwards as her strength left her, only to be met with the warmth of an embrace before she hit the floor.

He had returned to her.

(o)

A/N: Happy Holy Week everyone! I couldn't resist more KibaxTen in there, even though this story so does not involve them. I should probably go write another chapter of War Lines to get it out of my system. Thank you to all of my loyal fans! I have almost 80 people on alert for this one! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! More to come…whoot!

Jaggedjacket


	18. Chapter 18

She remembered his soft breath, so hot and so close to her ear that it tingled all the way down her neck as he held her close that night. She eagerly drank in his presence, let the warmth of his body soak up her skin, and relished the touch of his hands as they wrapped possessively around her tired body. She wanted him to come every night, just to hold her, to be next to her so that she felt safe and knew that he was, too.  
>But in the morning, he was gone.<br>Or so she thought.  
>He met her on the veranda with Shinju and Gai, who had apparently come back to visit. The sun warmed the edges of the earthen walled patio and Gai had his arm casually draped around the back of Shinju's chair. From Gai's relaxed position, he casually flirted with Shinju, who sat properly in her chair, but was wholly fixed on Gai and the intimate conversation they were engaged in. She felt like an interloper as she careened towards them in an attempt to not stumble over her own feet. Tenten found her composure and steadily walked to an empty chair, eagerly grabbing the back of the seat to help her regain her balance and slowly inched the chair out to sit down. She managed a meager smile during her rather long task.<br>It seemed that Shino had walked in two steps behind her, appearing like Lee out of nowhere, to assist her so that she could sit down.  
>"It is good to see you up and about," Shinju finally turned away from Gai to address his charge. "I was hoping you would be up for a walk this afternoon to see if you could gain back some more strength."<br>She nearly passed out in the shower this morning, and the trip from her room to the patio seemed like a damned marathon. She wasn't quite sure how to politely decline Shinju, who had somehow channeled her sensei's ability to feel the need to push her boundaries past the realm of ridiculousness. She prayed that that kind of attitude, the one that pushed the edge of reason to an ever demanding level, the level that usually had her puking and doing extra laps for passing out, had not been somehow been permanently acquired by osmosis or otherwise while being in Gai's presence. Just lifting her glass to her mouth required nearly all of her strength. The teacup weighed a ton at the moment. She didn't even have enough energy to start a sentence yet.  
>She smiled without answering and drank a small sip of her tea. She hoped that was non-committal enough. Shino beside her and sipped his tea with great care so as not disturb her. His wide shoulders were just as thick and burly as Gai's around the small table, and she tried not to feel overwhelmed by their looming figures. Shinju's tiny body was dwarfed by the men's presence and Tenten felt just as small around the earthen patio table as she sipped her tea with care, doing her best not to let it drop and spill down all over her front. It was only mid-morning, and already Tenten was ready to crash and find her bed for a few more hours. Her sides still ached and all she could think about was how she wanted Shino to take a nap with her and hold her like he did the night before.<br>Shinju must have picked up on Tenten's inability to cope with the thought of exercising anymore than she already had today. She politely turned to Shino, who somehow knew that taking sips of her sencha was about the extent of participation that Tenten could contribute for the moment.

Shinju took a delicate sip of her tea before she started up the conversation. "How is your father? Will he be returning for dinner this evening, Shino?"  
>It was then that Tenten recognized the need to ask a million questions of Shino.<br>"Yes," Shino's soothing voice answered her. It was that calm soothing voice she remembered hearing last night, but she couldn't recall the words he spoke to her. "He intends to join us for dinner. He is eager to meet with Tenten to see how she is doing. He sends his regards." Shino motioned to her with a very slight head nod. She smiled in turn, not quite sure what to make of Shibi's sudden interest in her health and wellbeing. She supposed, with a foggy thought process, that it might have something to do with saving his son.  
>The thought of having to go on a walk<em> and<em> sit through dinner was almost enough to have her pass out on the spot since there wasn't enough in her system to rightfully throw up. This was her first morning that she had been out of her room and lucid enough to be a part a conversation, she was just happy to be awake and not drooling into a pillow. However, she still had to put her teacup down to lean against the back of her chair while she sat to prevent the blasted weight from ending up as a bunch of wet shards on the floor.  
>She noted that no one had informed her of what happened to Yoshin Nami, so Tenten mustered up enough strength not to slur her sentence or sound too tired when she inquired about the man. She had formulated in her head a very polite way of going about asking for the information, but the sentence was too long so she decided to go with short, sweet and blunt instead.<br>"So… Yoshin Nami. Would someone like to elaborate on what happened to him?" Even with her less than sharp faculties, she felt the tension rise in the air around her question. Shinju quietly took another sip of her tea, buffering the ability to answer the direct query. Gai just stared at Shino with a thick raised eyebrow and the goggled man turned to her and answered in his calm voice.  
>"He and his gang are dead. The whole village celebrated with a weeklong festival."<br>"See what happens when you die," Tenten couldn't help but let the sleepiness back in her voice. "You miss out on all the fun."  
>"We saved you a paper lantern." Gai let the sparkle in his eyes ring out mirth of amusement in his voice. Great, she dies, the whole damn village celebrates with a week-long party and all she gets is a paper lantern. She was hoping there would have at least have been cake.<br>"Thanks, Sensei." Tenten nearly yawned without remorse. She still had more questions, like how the man and his lackeys died and why did Shino have to be gone for such a long time. Was he having a hard time recovering like she was? He looked perfectly rested and immaculate, like he had a shot of caffeine and he was ready to take on the world with a go-getter attitude. Not that Shino did perky, she just supposed that anyone might have looked like that in comparison with her. Where was everyone getting so much energy, anyways? She felt lousy at best. She managed to finish the rest of her tea without looking like she was gulping it down and slowly set the teacup down on the tiny table without a hint of noise instead of dropping it like the lead weight it was.  
>Shinju picked up on Tenten's need for more rest and excused herself and her patient from the patio. Tenten smiled and took Shinju's small arm to steady herself as they slowly made their way down the hall.<br>"Thank you," Tenten gave a half smile to Shinju, "You are a lifesaver."  
>"No deary, that would be you," she patted Tenten's hand gently, "the Aburame clan is very grateful for your sacrifice. It is the reason that you are without your strength. It is going to take time to build up your chakra. That jutsu that you used hadn't been used in the last two hundred years or so. It is a wonder that you were able to come back at all."<br>Tenten grunted and clutched her splitting side as they rounded a corner, "Remind me to read the fine print the next time I perform a forbidden jutsu," she groaned. Shinju just laughed prettily and patted her hand again.

"I suppose you are probably ready to hear about what happened when Shino died." To this, Tenten actually perked up considerably.

"Yes, please." She hate being in the dark. She understood ninja secrecy and special jutsus and all of that crap. But really, she just wanted someone to explain why everyone was calm and looking at her like she drifted in from outer space.

Shinju laughed a bit more and didn't continue her explanations until Tenten had gotten safely to her bed. Shinju sat on the edge and gave her an affectionate stare, something akin to what she would have thought a mother would have given her grown child. Her smile was warm and soothing. Tenten was glad to have her in her life and taking care of her while she recovered.

"Tell me," Tenten prodded softly as Shinju settled in on the side of the bed.

"They set the lavender fields on fire to throw off the Inuzuka's trail. The proceeding bombs were a diversion to create an environment that would hinder the Hyuga's abilities. There was chaos everywhere. Yoshin Nami grabbed you while I was putting out the fires that had spread to the village. Gai and everyone else was doing their level best to save every villager they could, all the while knowing that you were the initial target. Hours had past. No one could find you or Shino. We tended to the injured villagers and prayed. Shibi had sent out his destruction bugs to search for you while the two teams trailed the mountains in hopes of picking up a trail. Shibi hadn't gone far when a black cloud descended on him from nowhere. I thought the destruction bugs were his until…until I heard him scream."

Tenten gulped. Aburame men seemed pretty stoic most of the time. She couldn't even imagine what Shinju had heard in order for her to have that kind of frightened look on her face.

After a pause, Tenten prompted her again, "Go on."

Shinju nodded and swallowed once before continuing. "In a blur of rage he disappeared from the spot. The men we had captured from the attack also disappeared in a black cloud, only to be found drained of their chakra miles away, all dead." Her voice was steady, but she cleared her throat before continuing.

"Hinata was the one to find you and Shino. It had only taken a few minutes to find you both due to your little stunt, nicely done by the way."

"Thank you," Tenten accepted the praise with a head nod. "Continue," she spoke as she rolled a wrist.

"CPR , soldier pill, blood pill and medical jutsu. Not to mention the will of a lot of people not wanting you to stay dead. Shino was alive but not exactly lucid. His chakra was spiking oddly and we had to transport the two of you back here before Shino accidently hurt someone. Shibi showed up as soon as word got out that Shino had been revived. He took his son back to the Aburame compound so that they could properly transfer his kakkai back to him. Apparently once Shino died, they returned to Shibi, who had given them to him in the first place. Returning destruction bugs back to a person who has come back from the dead is a tricky process. I wasn't given the particulars, but Shino came back as soon as he was stable." Tenten smiled that she understood, doing her best to stay awake as Shinju spoke.

"All that is left now is for you to rest and get better. I will wake you up for lunch," she replied after she nestled Tenten further into her blanket.  
>"Can I have a nap for lunch?" Tenten asked sleepily.<br>"Only if you promise to go on a walk this afternoon," Shinju responded softly. Tenten wasn't able to answer as she had already fallen asleep.

A/N: MAD PROPS to Orz QUEEN OF RANDOMNESS Orz for the ridiculous amounts of time she put into editing and re-editing this chapter. TOTAL ROCKAGE! She did an extraordinary job and I owe her much thanks. Her command of the English language makes me look like I grunt and point to communicate. ALL HAIL THE MIGHTY QUEEN!


	19. Chapter 19

It was, without a doubt, the most beautiful afternoon that Tenten had seen in a very long time. The golden rays of the sun had settled themselves over the rolling hills of the land, jewelling the crevasses and knolls of the fields with unveiled glory. The majestic heights of the surrounding areas and the slopes of the valley combined to make the highlighted splendor that much more magical. She had a hard time watching her footing as she walked down the dip of the hill to where the old knotted tree stood vigilant in the crux of the valley.

Her strength had returned just in time to take a walk with Shino before the busyness of dinner with his father took all her attention. He was dressed smartly in one of those shifting colored robes that she wasn't sure was green or grey. The hue seemed illuminated in rich silk, enhanced by the bright firmament and dotted flowered hillsides of the terrain. They held hands as they walked to their tree.

Even with the distracting scenery all about them, she knew his focus was on her and it almost made her blush the way that she held his undivided attention.

"Tenten," his tone was too serious as her finger tips brushed the rough bark. She smiled up at him and silenced him with a finger to his lips. He almost looked frightened by the act as he stilled.

"Don't ruin the afternoon with apologies." Her hand trailed down to the front of his robes as she drew closer to his chest. Her voice came out only a whisper, "please." It was a two-fold request as she began to press her lips to his, something that he eagerly granted. Arms ensconced in his, she felt safe and more alive than she had ever been. Her strength seemed to return a little more with every brush of his lip, and with every possessive pull he made on her to guide her upwards to him. They knew they couldn't stay like this long, but they took advantage of their small window of privacy to remain intimate until their lips were swollen and they were out of breath. With reluctance they headed back again on foot, still linked hand in hand.

She found renewed energy from the walk and was even able to take another one at Shibi's request after dinner.

Shibi had only wanted a shorter walk around the extended garden in the back of the main building after supper. It was private enough for another intimate talk, one no doubt that would leave her a little bit more than uncomfortable. She kept on a lighthearted countenance as she watched the fireflies drift along the hills in the background and float in with their subtle lights to find refuge in one another. The idea was terribly romantic, yet Tenten refused to dismiss the girly sentiment, even if she was a kunoichi.

"Tenten," she almost chuckled at the way the two men spoke her name with such gravity.

"Aburame-san," she turned to face him, away from the flashing lights of the fire bugs. "I must thank you for allowing me to stay here in your personal vacation home for the duration of my recuperation. I am indebted to you." She bowed formally, leaving the older man momentarily stunned.

As she straightened up from her bow to open her eyes, she was nearly crushed in an embrace reminiscent of her master's. Eyes bulging suddenly from impact, she awkwardly returned the hug as she fought for balance. She didn't take Aburames for the touchy- feely type…with the exception of his son with her.

"You brought my son back from death itself; there is no way that I could ever repay you." His voice sounded broken. It was a good thing that years on Team Gai taught her how to deal with the uncomfortable situations such as this one. She generally waited them out and let them pass, trying her best not to exasperate the situation further all while hopefully adding a bit of saneness to an already awkward situation.

He composed himself before parting from her and she simply offered him a reassuring smile to try and comfort him.

He returned her smile with a poignant curve of his lip as he spoke. "Thank you, Tenten," he paused and took her hand to kiss the dorsal side. "For returning my son to me." She felt him squeeze her hand with gratitude. She noticed another wave of emotion brimming over him and she brought him back to her for a second and equally uncomfortable hug. She was suddenly grateful to her master for what seemed at the time non-sensicalnonsensical training. She would feel ten times more outside her comfort zone if he hadn't ritualistically prepared her for such social anomalies. Instead of feeling embarrassed, she decidedly felt honored that such a stoic man would choose to act in such an open manner with her. Her only ill at ease feelings about the whole situation were that she felt unworthy of the praise given to her.

"I deserve no such gratitude for my actions." She stated with a calming tone. "I, too, love your son."

"It is for that, that I am most grateful," she wasn't expecting him to say that. He clutched her so tightly she could almost feel his soul thanking her for her sacrifice.

The truth was, she really hadn't thought of it as such. Not a sacrifice. Not her. She didn't seem worthy of honor like that. She was just Tenten, Weapon's Mistress of Konoha. Certainly nothing she did could gain recognition from someone like the clan leader of the Aburame. The only thing she could hope for was that his son loved her the same way that she loved him.

(oo)

It wasn't until they were headed out and on their way back to Konoha that she was able to see Shino again. He had taken her hand in hand and they lazily strolled with a bunch of others out of the beloved valley which for a short time she considered home.

Strength back and confident as ever, she decided to enjoy the journey with Shino. She caught Shibi out of the corner of her eye, making his way around her periphery to greet the two.

"I may end up killing your father if he tries to thank me one more time." Tenten's glare focused on Shino with a calculated grace manifesting the composure that she wasn't joking around.

Soberly evaluating first his father, then the lovely kunoichi by his side, he reluctantly let go of Tenten's hand to cut his father off before he could reach her. Tenten watched the two from her peripheral vision as she walked forward on their journey home.

They talked like any two Aburame men did: with curt nods and low voices. That was until Shino broke out into a fatuous toothy grin nearly matching his father's own delighted smirk. Tenten couldn't imagine what those two could possibly be so happy about. She decided to leave it alone, too deliriously happy herself about spending the day outside with Shino to be concerned about such matters.

Shibi acknowledged her with a short hand wave before he left, heading back up to the estate where he had come from.

"Will he not be joining us?" Tenten queried as she craned her head to spy Shibi already half-way out of the clearing. Shino took her hand back in his and shook his head without any sign of regret.

"No, he has quite a bit of work left to do. There is still quite a bit of damage done to the town and of course the wedding arrangements."

Tenten gulped. "Wedding arrangements?" Her eyebrows shot up as she faced Shino, who didn't even try to hide the amusement on his face.

"Your master and Shinju of course," Shino explained after a few moments of watching the panic settle over her face. She watched another self-satisfied smirk glue itself happily to his face as he teased her.

"You are evil." She said without any real fervor. "I thought you were talking about us getting married."

"Are you opposed to the idea of a marriage with me?" Shino quickly turned from playing around to serious in an instant.

"Of course not!" She shot back. Wanting to say more but feeling too exposed to do so, she left it at that. The truth was that she did want to marry Shino, she just wanted time to settle into a relationship with him first.

"You would just prefer to have our relationship progress at a normal pace instead of jumping directly into a permanent role."

"Yes," She agreed, "Thank you for understanding." Shino nodded. She had the feeling he wanted to take it easy too.

They walked along comfortably hand in hand. There was something that she had meant to ask him all this time.

"So when you wrote me that letter asking me to bring along all of the things assigned to me from our first mission together, what exactly did you have in mind? And did you steal a pair of my underwear?"

Shino chuckled at her last question, which she only just remembered to ask and did so with quite a bit more curiosity than normal.

"First of all, I did not steal anything. I fully intend on giving you your personal belonging back to you. I needed a hair tie to trace your scent. Your imagination drew you to the conclusion that I purloined such an intimate object. As for the mission, I wanted to see you in the dress yes, but more importantly, the shoes."

Oh, so the man had a fetish after all!

"Wait, by any chance, did Kiba come with you to my apartment when you left the katana?"

Shino nodded slowly in the affirmative.

"He took my favorite pair of panties." She stated calmly.

"What?!" Shino ground out harshly.

"My my, Shino. First you let him take my underwear, then you send him into my room to lick me." She shook her head and tutted her tongue. "And you call yourself a good boyfriend."

Shino stilled and spoke gravely. "I am going to kill that Inuzuka."

Tenten chuckled as she prodded the stoic man back on his way. "Yeah, but first, let's just go home."

Shino let his hostility melt for the time being. There was plenty of time for revenge. Now, they had the whole day to themselves. He nodded his head. "Agreed."


End file.
